State guide
Planting zones in the District of Columbia
The District of Columbia spans USDA zones 7b to 8a across its 54 ZIP codes, so there is no single zone for the state and anyone who gives you one is rounding. 70% of its ZIP codes are zone 8a; the rest are not.
Your ZIP code
Get the exact answer for your address
Everything above describes the District of Columbia as a whole. Hardiness zones and freeze dates are published per ZIP code, so yours is exact — enter it and this page will tell you your zone, which NOAA station it comes from and how far away that station is.
Which zone you are in depends where you are
The District of Columbia covers 2 hardiness zones. A guide that gives the state one zone has picked whichever is largest and rounded everyone else into it — which is fine for the 70% in zone 8a and wrong for the other 30%. Here is the actual split, by ZIP code.
| Zone | ZIP codes | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8a | 38 | 70% | |
| 7b | 16 | 30% |
Zones are published per ZIP code, so yours is exact even though the state's is not. The hardiness tool will tell you which one you are in.
Your freeze dates
No NOAA station with published freeze normals sits inside the District of Columbia. That is not the same as having no answer: all 54 of its ZIP codes are served by stations just outside it, and the tools below cite the one they used and how far away it is. This page does not borrow those stations to state a freeze date “for the District of Columbia”, because they are not in the District of Columbia.
What survives the winter changes across the District of Columbia
Of 74 perennial fruits, nuts, berries, vegetables and herbs, 57 come through the winter in zone 8a and only 56 in zone 7b. Winter hardiness runs on the zone alone, so each row below is exact for the ZIP codes in it.
| Zone | ZIPs | Survive | Fail for being too warm |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7b | 16 | 56 of 74 | 3 |
| 8a | 38 | 57 of 74 | 8 |
The last column is the counterintuitive one. Most temperate fruit needs a documented number of hours below about 45 °F to break dormancy and set a crop, so an apple fails in a winter that is too warm; currants and rhubarb cook in the summer heat that comes with it. See the full list with reasons.
Your own ZIP
Work out your own dates
Each of these takes a ZIP code and answers for that ZIP alone, citing the station it used and how far away it is. There is a ZIP box in the header of every page.
- What survives my winter?
Runs on the hardiness zone, so it answers exactly for your ZIP code rather than for the District of Columbia as a whole — 74 perennial fruits, berries, vegetables and herbs.
- When do I start my seeds?
Dates every spring job from your own last freeze — sow indoors, set out, direct sow.
- When do I sow the next round?
How often each crop is worth re-sowing, and when the next sowing is due.
- What can I still plant?
Counts the growing days left before your first fall freeze, crop by crop.
Metro areas in the District of Columbia
1 metro area here has its own page, with the freeze dates from every station serving it, a spring calendar built from those stations, and every ZIP code in it listed with that ZIP code's exact zone and nearest station.
- Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Zones 7a–8a
Counties in the District of Columbia
No county in District of Columbia has its own page yet. A county earns one when it holds enough ZIP codes and cites enough NOAA stations to say something its neighbours' pages would not — and where a county sits mostly inside a metro area, the metro page already covers it. The zone split above and the tools answer every District of Columbia ZIP code regardless.
Other states to compare
Gear
If you want to act on this
Each link opens an Amazon search rather than a product we picked. We have not tested these and do not rank them — the search is the honest version, and you choose.
- Soaker hose and drip kitsThe stations here publish no ordinary freeze window, so frost is not what limits the season — water is, through a summer that does not stop.
- MulchFor the perennials nearest their cold limit in zone 7b, where an insulated crown is what decides whether they come back.
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. That costs you nothing extra, and it buys no influence over anything on this site: the dates come from NOAA normals and the zones from the USDA, and no product affects either.
Sources
Where these numbers come from
The hardiness zone is the USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map, published per ZIP code by PRISM at Oregon State. The freeze dates, growing seasons and summer highs are NOAA's 1991–2020 Climate Normals, read from every station in the District of Columbia. Which ZIP codes are in the District of Columbia comes from the Census ZIP-to-county relation, since a county's federal code begins with its state's. Nothing here is estimated.
This page names no single station for the District of Columbia on purpose. Picking one to represent a state sounds reasonable and is not — the same reason the metro pages refuse it, only more so at this size. Instead every range names the station at each end, so you can check both without either one being made to speak for the state.