Wintergreen, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Wintergreen, 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 Wintergreen 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 Wintergreen — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wintergreen — the short answer
Wintergreen, Virginia: USDA zone 6b, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~220
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 6b is Wintergreen's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wintergreen's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wintergreen
Each reading below is measured for Wintergreen itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWintergreen runs about 220 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
MeasuredWintergreen sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Wintergreen is in
Wintergreen sits in the Blue Ridge — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wintergreen's own centroid rather than borrowed from Nelson County.
What Grows in Wintergreen
Every plant below cleared Wintergreen's own zone 6b and its 220-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wintergreen?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Wintergreen
Spotted lanternfly documented 8 miles from Wintergreen, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Wintergreen
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wintergreen. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Black Rock MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- BELL ATLANTICUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- 39M 3Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- WINTERGREEN CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Hickmans Gas and GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- WINTERGREEN SKI RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- WINTERGREEN WWTP & FOX GRAPE LIFT STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- DEVILS KNOB GOLF MAINTENANCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Graves GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- Hazel Shade OccurrenceMining · 2.5 mi
- Allen MinesMining · 2.7 mi
- Wintergreen GrocersUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wintergreen'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 Wintergreen.
Total Sites
69
within ~10 miles of Wintergreen
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wintergreen
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wintergreen
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wintergreen, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 58 sites within ~10 miles of Wintergreen. 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 Wintergreen
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 Wintergreen average
Your land is one point inside Wintergreen
Everything above resolves to Wintergreen as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Wintergreen Average
Wintergreen Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Wintergreen
- ●One soil character for all of Wintergreen
- ●Frost dates read at Wintergreen's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wintergreen's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wintergreen
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wintergreen, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wintergreen averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wintergreen — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wintergreen average
How we know this about Wintergreen
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 Wintergreen’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 Wintergreen
When does frost risk typically end in Wintergreen?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wintergreen typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Wintergreen?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wintergreen typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 220 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wintergreen?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wintergreen sees about 220 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 25, about 185 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wintergreen?
The federal record around Wintergreen shows 69 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (58), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Wintergreen?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wintergreen's scale — its 6b band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wintergreen'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 Wintergreen’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Wintergreen's own scale — its own ~220-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,630 acres it covers and 69 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wintergreen's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wintergreen's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Nov 8 and the ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 69 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wintergreen, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wintergreen's boundary and the 5,630 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~220-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wintergreen's own centroid, the Blue RidgeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Wintergreenlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wintergreen's 5,630 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nelson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Nelson 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 Nelson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wintergreen's 5,630 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wintergreen you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,630 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Wintergreen-wide figureread your own land →