Weems, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Weems, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Weems lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Weems — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Weems — the short answer
Weems, Virginia: USDA zone 8a, about 254 days between hard freezes, across 346 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~254
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 346 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Weems's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Weems's 254-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Weems
Each reading below is measured for Weems itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWeems runs about 254 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredWeems sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Weems is in
Weems sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Weems's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lancaster County.
What Grows in Weems
Every plant below cleared Weems's own zone 8a and its 254-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Weems?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Weems
Spotted lanternfly documented 28 miles from Weems, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Weems
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Weems. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Weems Merchantile and Trading Company IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Humphreys Railways IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- J J KellumUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Abbott Brothers IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- W F Morgan Son IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Currell AirfieldUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- RAPPAHANNOCK YACHTS INCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- J C Marsh Oil Company IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Rappahannock Yachts IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Tides Lodge MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Tides Inn IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- 59K 13Nitrate · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Weems's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Weems.
Total Sites
216
within ~10 miles of Weems
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Weems
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Weems
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Weems, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 163 sites within ~10 miles of Weems. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Weems
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Weems average
Your land is one point inside Weems
Everything above resolves to Weems as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 346 acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Weems Average
Weems Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Weems
- ●One soil character for all of Weems
- ●Frost dates read at Weems's scale: Mar 16 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Weems's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Weems
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Weems, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Weems averages can't show:
We read public map data around Weems — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Weems average
How we know this about Weems
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Weems’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Weems
When does frost risk typically end in Weems?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Weems typically lands around Mar 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Apr 6.
When is the first frost in Weems?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Weems typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 254 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Weems?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Weems sees about 254 frost-free days — roughly Mar 16 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 6 to Nov 11, about 219 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Weems?
The federal record around Weems is a meaningful one — 216 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (163), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Weems?
From about Oct 26 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Weems's scale — its 8a band and its 254-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Weems's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Weems’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Weems's own scale — its own ~254-day season between 28°F freezes, the 346 acres it covers and 216 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Weems's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Weems's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 16 and Nov 25 and the ~254-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 216 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Weems, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Weems's boundary and the 346 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~254-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Weems's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Weemslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Weems's 346 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lancaster County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lancaster County
- The growing challenges every Virginia grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Virginia
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Lancaster County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Weems's 346 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Weems you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 346 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Weems-wide figureread your own land →
More in Virginia
Wider growing context
What grows across VirginiaWeems sits outside our named growing regions, so Virginia as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides