Fruit Trees for Chicago, Oak Park, Cicero and Berwyn, Illinois

In the cold snap of January 30, 2019, the Midway airport station read −22°F and Northerly Island, the man-made peninsula on the lakefront, read −21°F. In the January 2009 cold snap the island read −11°F while Midway and O'Hare both hit −18°F. So the lake helps, by 7°F one night and 1°F another, and that's the first thing to know about fruit trees for Chicago, Oak Park, Cicero and Berwyn. The second is that this flat old lake bed has frost pockets, and they matter most on bloom nights.

The map runs from about 87th Street north to about Fullerton Avenue, and from the lakefront west to Northlake, Hillside, Western Springs and Willow Springs. Every named place on it plans for −16°F to −22°F, which clears most of what we sell. Type your address in the box on the map to get the number for your own place, and the list of what we sell that has come through it.

How to read this map

Click a spot and you get four readings. The planning low is the cold we'd plan a tree around, the same 30-year number our cold hardiness calculator uses, plus a small adjustment for the ground under you. It's a safe planning number, not a record or a floor: the 2019 cold snap went 2°F to 3°F past it at the two Midway stations. The MFTC zone puts it in half zones. The typical winter is an average year's coldest night, the kind of number USDA zones are built on. The spring reading is how much warmer or colder the spot runs than downtown Chicago on a still, clear night at bloom.

Downtown plans for −18°F, MFTC zone 5a, with a typical winter of −4°F. The middle of the map's growing ground sits at −20°F, and half of it falls between −21°F and −19°F. East Hyde Park and Washington Park are the mild end at −16°F. Prescotts Island near Forest View, Archer Limits just north of Midway, and the Forest Hills neighborhood of Western Springs are the cold end at −22°F. Bloom nights spread wider, from the Museum Campus at 4°F warmer than downtown (the warmest spring reading of any named place on the map) to Prescotts Island at 8°F colder.

Why the map looks the way it does

Chicago sits on the floor of glacial Lake Chicago. Most of the city on this map lies between about 585 ft and 620 ft, with Lake Michigan at 577 ft. The rises are small: the old beach ridges that Ridgeland Avenue, Riverside Drive and LaGrange Road follow, old islands like Stony Island, the sides of the Des Plaines valley in the southwest corner, and ground that climbs gently to about 670 ft to 710 ft at Western Springs and Burr Ridge. On ground this flat, cold air has almost nowhere to drain, so most of it is made in place as the ground radiates to a clear sky. What sorts warm from cold is mostly distance from the lake and how built up the ground is.

Lake Michigan holds heat into winter: on January 15, 2024, after air lows near −10°F, the National Weather Service had the water at 34°F at the shoreline and 39°F out at the Chicago Crib. NOAA station records show what that's worth. In the 1936 and 1940 cold snaps the old University of Chicago station in Hyde Park ran 2°F warmer than the old Cicero station, and in the 1980s it ran even with Midway to 3°F warmer. But Chicago is the upwind shore. Cold-season winds come mostly from the west and northwest, off the land (that's why the Michigan shore gets more lake-effect snow than Chicago does), and the warm strip is narrow. The Gold Coast plans for −17°F, and Cabrini-Green, under a mile west on the North Branch, for −20°F.

The city is the other warm sink. The Illinois State Climatologist puts Chicago about 2°F warmer on average, especially at night, and the old Weather Bureau city station (1890 to 1969) ran a median 3°F warmer than Midway on the year's coldest night. It shows in the suburbs too: downtown Oak Park plans for −17°F against a floor median of −20°F within 3 miles.

The cold ground is the low ground along the South Branch, the Sanitary and Ship Canal and the Des Plaines. The canal cuts southwest across the low divide the old Chicago Portage crossed at Mud Lake, then runs beside the Des Plaines out the valley Lake Chicago once drained through. From the flats just north of Midway out to the river, the ground sits at 589 ft to 596 ft, at or within 10 ft of its floor, and plans for −21°F to −22°F at Archer Limits, LeClaire Courts, Central Stickney, Argo and Forest View. On a bloom night Prescotts Island reads 8°F colder than downtown, and Forest View, LeClaire Courts and Riverside 7°F colder.

Where the Des Plaines valley has real sides, the thermal belt shows up on bloom nights: Willow Springs, 40 ft above its floor on a 15 percent grade, and Hickory Hills, 70 ft up, read only 1°F colder than downtown. The winter number moves less, since it takes the fine terrain pattern at a quarter strength. And none of it holds when deep arctic air fills the plain. On February 9, 1899, the old La Grange station and the Weather Bureau city station both read −21°F, and in the January 2019 cold snap O'Hare, Midway and Northerly Island read −23°F, −22°F and −21°F. Height alone buys nothing here. The suburbs west of the river sit at 630 ft to 660 ft and plan for −20°F to −21°F, and the O'Hare station, at 672 ft just past the map's northwest corner, has run colder than Midway or even with it in every big cold snap in our NOAA list.

Downtown, the Gold Coast and the North Branch

Downtown sits at 596 ft, 20 ft above its floor, between the lake and the densest part of the city, and plans for −18°F, MFTC zone 5a. The Gold Coast plans for −17°F, and Streeterville, Old Town, the Loop and the South Loop for −18°F. At bloom the Gold Coast reads 1°F warmer than downtown, Streeterville reads even, and the Museum Campus 4°F warmer.

The strip is narrow. Within 3 miles of downtown the floor's median is −20°F and the coldest tenth of the growing ground −22°F. River North and the Near North Side plan for −19°F, and Cabrini-Green and the Ranch Triangle, down by the North Branch at 589 ft to 593 ft, for −20°F. Sections of the North Branch freeze almost every year, and a river that freezes is just low ground. Those two still read only 2°F to 3°F colder than downtown at bloom.

On the lakefront strip even the plants rated −20°F clear, like Bing cherry and Flavortop nectarine, and bloom nights are as mild as any named place on the map, so Harlayne apricot, Contender peach and Lapins cherry belong here. By the North Branch, give the −20°F plants a south or west wall.

Hyde Park, Kenwood and the South Side lakefront

The mildest winter numbers on the map are on the South Side, on the lake or within about 2 miles of it. East Hyde Park and Washington Park plan for −16°F; Oakland, Kenwood, Grand Boulevard and Bronzeville for −17°F; Hyde Park, Douglas, Woodlawn and South Shore for −18°F. At bloom, East Hyde Park, Indian Village and Windsor Park, right on the lake, read even with downtown or 1°F warmer. Hyde Park, Kenwood and South Shore read 1°F to 2°F colder, and Washington Park and Woodlawn 3°F colder.

Near the southeast corner, Stony Island was an island in Lake Chicago as the water fell, and Stony Island Heights and Pill Hill next to it sit 20 ft above their floor at 602 ft to 605 ft. They plan for −18°F and −17°F and read 3°F and 2°F colder than downtown at bloom.

This is the best stretch on the map for early bloomers: Westcot and Sungold apricots, Siberian C and Blushingstar peaches (Blushingstar came through −25°F at our place in January 2024 without damage), Black Gold cherry, and Superior plum with Toka, a good pollenizer for Superior. Apples rated −20°F like Baldwin clear here too.

The West Side, the canal flats and Midway

Away from the lake the city settles at −19°F to −21°F on flat ground within 10 ft of its floor. Wicker Park, Bucktown, West Town and Austin plan for −19°F, Humboldt Park and West Garfield Park for −20°F, and East Garfield Park for −21°F, and bloom nights run 4°F to 5°F colder than downtown.

The coldest city ground runs southwest from Pilsen and Bridgeport through McKinley Park, Brighton Park and Archer Heights, along the South Branch and the canal, all at 589 ft to 596 ft. Pilsen, the Lower West Side and Archer Heights plan for −21°F, and Bridgeport, McKinley Park, Brighton Park and Little Village for −20°F. Just north of Midway it bottoms out: Archer Limits plans for −22°F and LeClaire Courts for −21°F, and LeClaire Courts reads 7°F colder than downtown at bloom.

Midway sits between Clearing and Garfield Ridge, which both plan for −19°F, and the two Midway stations' own 30-year numbers are −19°F and −20°F. Chicago Lawn plans for −20°F and reads 6°F colder than downtown at bloom, and Englewood, Auburn Gresham and Evergreen Park plan for −19°F. Inland, the −20°F plants sit right at the line, so give Santa Rosa plum and Bing your warmest wall and put things rated −25°F and colder in the open. On the canal flats, apples and bush fruit do the work, and pears and stone fruit stay off.

Oak Park, River Forest, Forest Park and Maywood

Oak Park sits on the old Lake Chicago shoreline at about 620 ft. Ridgeland Avenue, on its east side, follows that shoreline and was once a true ridge, and the continental divide between the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi runs through town. The village center plans for −19°F, MFTC zone 5a, with a typical winter of −5°F, and reads 5°F colder than downtown Chicago at bloom.

The warmest part of Oak Park is the built-up center, not the ridge. Downtown Oak Park plans for −17°F and the Hemingway District for −18°F, which fits what town heat does to a dense center on a still night. Ridgeland, 20 ft above its floor, plans for −19°F and reads a degree better at bloom than the village center. Southtown, at the south end of the village, reads 7°F colder, among the frostiest spring readings of any named place on the map.

River Forest, with Thatcher Woods on its west edge, and Forest Park, with the Des Plaines running through it, both plan for −19°F, but at bloom River Forest reads 6°F colder than downtown and Forest Park 4°F colder. West of the river, Maywood, Broadview, Westchester and Melrose Park plan for −20°F, and Bellwood, Hillside, Berkeley, Stone Park and Northlake for −21°F, with bloom nights 5°F to 6°F colder; past them, our western suburbs and Fox Valley map picks up. In Oak Park yards apples are the easy call, like Honeycrisp and Northern Spy, and pears like Seckel belong on the center and Ridgeland ground, not down by the river.

Cicero, Berwyn and Stickney

Cicero, the old factory town of the Hawthorne Works, sits at about 605 ft and plans for −20°F, right at the line between MFTC zones 4b and 5a, with bloom nights 4°F colder than downtown. The old Cicero station (1934 to 1958) bottomed out at −19°F on January 23, 1936, and its own 30-year number is −20°F, the same as the map gives the town today.

Berwyn is mostly old lake bottom with a sand and gravel beach ridge along Riverside Drive, which makes a noticeable rise on the 2800 block of Maple Avenue. Before settlement it was grassy marsh, Mud Lake reached nearly to its south edge, and the south end flooded regularly in heavy rain. Berwyn plans for −19°F, MFTC zone 5a, and reads 5°F colder than downtown at bloom. South of both towns is the cold side: Stickney plans for −20°F and Central Stickney for −21°F, and both read 6°F colder than downtown at bloom.

In these bungalow yards, put apples like Wealthy and Haralson out in the yard, give plums like Underwood and the other early bloomers the spot that reads best on the map, and keep the −20°F plants to a sheltered wall. The beach ridge's sand and gravel drains better than the clay around it.

Riverside, Brookfield, La Grange and Western Springs

Riverside is Olmsted and Vaux's 1869 village, its curving streets following the winding Des Plaines, with Swan Pond on the river. The village center sits 10 ft above its floor and plans for −20°F, MFTC zone 4b, and its spring reading is one of the frostiest of any named town on the map, 7°F colder than downtown. Plant apples, honeyberries and currants near the river, and keep apricots and pears for the highest ground you have.

Brookfield and La Grange Park plan for −21°F and read 6°F colder than downtown at bloom. La Grange sits on Lake Chicago's old western shore, with Bluff Avenue marking the shoreline on its east side; it plans for −20°F, right on the 4b and 5a line, and reads 5°F colder at bloom, a degree better than the lower ground east and north of it.

Western Springs started as flat prairie with a swamp on its west border and mineral springs on the southwest side. The village center, at 674 ft and 40 ft above its floor, plans for −19°F and reads 4°F colder than downtown at bloom. The cold runs toward Flagg Creek. Forest Hills, near the creek, plans for −22°F, 3°F colder than the center, and Ridgewood on the south end isn't much better at −22°F; both read 6°F colder than downtown at bloom. Peaches rated −25°F like Glohaven still clear there by 3°F, though they'll bloom into colder nights.

Summit, Lyons, Willow Springs and the Des Plaines valley

Summit takes its name from the high point on the old Chicago Portage, but most of it lies in the Des Plaines floodplain. It plans for −20°F, MFTC zone 4b, and reads 4°F colder than downtown at bloom. Argo, where the big corn plant sits at 65th and Archer, plans for −21°F and reads 6°F colder. Lyons, where Salt Creek comes into the Des Plaines, plans for −19°F and reads 4°F colder.

The valley sides are the story here. Willow Springs, named for springs along the Des Plaines, has the river and the canal at its foot and the Palos forest preserves next door. The village center, on the valley wall at 636 ft, plans for −21°F, but the benches within 3 miles plan for −19°F, and at bloom the village reads only 1°F colder than downtown. Hodgkins and McCook, 40 ft up on the north side, read 1°F and 2°F colder, and Burr Ridge, on a bench 100 ft up, 2°F colder. Hickory Hills, 70 ft above its floor at 680 ft, gets the best of both: −18°F, MFTC zone 5a, and 1°F colder than downtown at bloom. It sits at the map's south edge, and the Palos are on our Joliet, Orland Park and south suburbs map.

If you want apricots, peaches or sweet cherries away from the lake, the valley side is the ground for them. In Hickory Hills even Bing clears. In Willow Springs and Burr Ridge (−21°F), stick with apricots like Debbie's Gold and Wenatchee Moorpark, Veteran peach and Skeena cherry.

Spring frost and bloom in Chicago

NOAA station records for 1991 to 2020 give the Midway airport station, at 610 ft, a median last 32°F frost of April 10 and a last 28°F of March 31; one year in ten the last 32°F comes April 21 or later. The O'Hare station, at 672 ft just past the map's northwest corner, has a median last 32°F of April 21, a last 28°F of April 6 and a late-year date of May 10. In fall it's October 30 at Midway and October 19 at O'Hare, for frost-free seasons of 200 and 178 days. No lakefront station has 1991 to 2020 frost dates in the NOAA records we pulled. The spring layer fills in the rest: the lakefront strip reads about 5°F warmer than Midway's neighborhoods on a bloom night and the river and canal bottoms 2°F to 3°F colder, so the lakefront's last frost should come earlier than Midway's and the bottoms' later.

The Morton Arboretum puts crabapple, cherry and serviceberry bloom at April to mid-May in a normal year, and the risk is a warm spell that pulls bloom early. In 2024, after record February highs, some elms and maples in the Chicago area flowered in late February, more than a month early, and the National Climate Assessment says early springs followed by freezes have raised the risk of April and May freeze injury to Midwest tree fruit.

Open blossoms of nearly every tree fruit start dying near 28°F, by Michigan State's numbers. That's less dire than it sounds. Unless the fruit comes in clusters, like cherries and grapes, most fruit can lose half its blossoms or more with little effect, and frost does some of your thinning; the University of Minnesota figures only about 15 percent of apple blossoms need to set for a crop. Fully open haskap flowers take 19°F.

On a flat city lot the frost settles in the lowest corner and backs up behind a garage, a solid fence or a hedge, so put early bloomers on the highest part of the lot and the low corner in apples and bush fruit. Through bloom, mow the grass under the trees short, don't till, and water a day or two before a frost night. Near the lake, water that commonly stays in the 40s°F into May should hold bloom back on the shore while town heat pushes it earlier, and we haven't found a measurement of which wins on the Chicago lakefront.

What the weather records say

The coldest reading in the NOAA station records here is −27°F at O'Hare on January 20, 1985, the same day Midway hit −25°F and the University of Chicago station −24°F, the coldest in all three records. Midway also hit −22°F in January 1982 and −20°F in December 1983. Since then the big ones came in January 2009 (−18°F at Midway), January 2014 (−15°F) and January 2019 (−22°F), the year Illinois set its state record low of −38°F.

Our planning low is built from winters since 1995-96, so it misses that run of the 1980s, and 2019 went 2°F to 3°F past it at Midway. Leave a few degrees of room on any tree you care about. More than half our list is rated −40°F or colder, 18°F below the coldest planning low on this map.

USDA's 2023 map puts most of Chicagoland in zone 6a, and WTTW reported the lakefront in 6b. Our MFTC zones read colder, 5a downtown and 4b on the cold flats, because USDA's come from the average winter's coldest night and ours from the bad night we plan for. Run our typical winter numbers through the same zone math and you land on USDA's: −4°F downtown is 6b, and −8°F in Brookfield is 6a.

What you can grow here

Most of our list clears winter everywhere on this map, so pick by bloom nights and the spot in your yard, and watch the handful of plants rated −20°F that sit right at the edge.

The lakefront strip, downtown and the South Side lake neighborhoods (−16°F to −18°F)

Hickory Hills, on the valley side, belongs here too. Everything rated −20°F or colder clears, including Kandil Sinap and St. Edmund's Pippin apples, Arctic Glo nectarine and Javid's Iranian Almond. Bloom nights are as good as the map gets (Washington Park and Woodlawn run a bit frostier), so this is the place for apricots like Tomcot, peaches like Redstar and sweet cherries like Rainier. Montana Trial Persimmon (−25°F) and Montana Trial Pawpaw (−30°F) fit too.

Most of the city and the inner suburbs (−19°F to −20°F)

The −20°F plants sit right at the line and want your warmest spot, like a south or west wall. Everything rated −25°F and colder clears, like Glowingstar peach, Red Gold nectarine, Stella cherry and SnowCzar almond. Apples are the surest crop: Zestar!, Liberty, Golden Russet and Stayman Winesap. Pears like Bartlett and plums like Italian fit too, kept off the low corners and the river ground. Bloom nights here mostly run 4°F to 5°F colder than downtown, so stone fruit will miss some years.

The river and canal flats and the cold west suburbs (−21°F to −22°F)

The plants rated −25°F still clear by 3°F to 4°F, and the −20°F ones are worth a try only in your warmest spot. Bloom nights run 4°F to 8°F colder than downtown, so this is apple, haskap and bush fruit country: Kindercrisp and Frostbite apples, Kerr applecrab, honeyberries, Consort black currant, Hinnomaki Red gooseberry and Nova raspberry. Keep pears, apricots and sweet cherries off this ground.

Wherever you are, fruit trees want at least 6 hours of direct sun, and 8 to 10 is better. Much of Chicago sits on hard-packed glacial clay, so test drainage first: dig a hole 2 ft deep, fill it, let it drain, fill it again, and if it empties in under 10 hours you're fine. The Illinois Farm Bureau puts fruit's best soil at pH 5.6 to 7.0, and on an old city lot it's worth testing for contamination. When the ground is bare in a hard cold snap, roots are the weak link (dormant apple roots get hurt near 10°F while the wood takes about −40°F), so mulch the root zone in late fall, and in the 4b parts of the map taper the water from mid-August so trees harden off. Apples need a second variety blooming at the same time, and a crabapple in bloom works; our pollination maps show which pollenizers line up.

Fruit history here

Chicago took Urbs in Horto, City in a Garden, as its motto in 1837, but its farm history is mostly vegetables and glass: Claussen made pickles at 51st and South Western from 1870 to 1976, and when WBEZ's Curious City went looking it found no commercial orchard history. The best recent story is the Chicago Rarities Orchard Project, started by urban farmer Dave Snyder for a heritage orchard in Logan Square. Its 75 young trees, held on a donated parcel in Garfield Park, came through the 2013-14 winter (Midway hit −15°F that January) and bloomed, and the old apples the project named include Blue Pearmain.

Questions people ask

What growing zone is Chicago?

USDA's 2023 map puts most of Chicagoland in zone 6a and the lakefront in 6b. Our map has downtown planning for −18°F, MFTC zone 5a, and the coldest river and canal flats for −21°F to −22°F, zone 4b. USDA's zones come from an average winter's coldest night (−4°F downtown on our map, which is 6b), and ours from the bad night we'd plan a tree around.

When is the last frost in Chicago?

At the Midway airport station, NOAA records for 1991 to 2020 give a median last 32°F frost of April 10 and a last 28°F of March 31; one year in ten the last 32°F comes April 21 or later. The O'Hare station, just northwest of this map, runs later: April 21, and May 10 in a late year. River bottoms like Riverside and Forest View read 7°F colder than downtown on a still spring night, so they'll frost later than Midway.

Can you grow peaches in Chicago?

Yes. Every peach we sell clears the planning low at every named place on this map: Siberian C is rated −35°F, Contender and Veteran −30°F, and even the −25°F ones like Glowingstar have 3°F to spare on the coldest flats. Peaches bloom early, so plant them where the map reads well at bloom: the lakefront strip, Hyde Park and Kenwood, or the valley sides at Willow Springs and Hickory Hills.

Does Lake Michigan keep Chicago warmer in winter?

Near the shore, and not on every night. In the January 2009 cold snap Northerly Island read −11°F while Midway and O'Hare both hit −18°F, but in the January 2019 cold snap the island was only 1°F warmer than Midway. Winter winds here mostly blow off the land, and the warm strip is narrow: the Gold Coast plans for −17°F and Cabrini-Green, under a mile west, for −20°F.

Can you grow a Chicago Hardy fig in Chicago?

Not by our numbers. Our Chicago Hardy Fig is rated −10°F, the coldest we know it has come through, and the mildest named places on this map plan for −16°F. That's 6°F short even in East Hyde Park, past the 5°F we'd call worth a try. Everything we sell rated −20°F or colder fits the lakefront and downtown, including Bing cherry and Santa Rosa plum.

Warmer spots, colder spots

Here's the number to plan for at named places on the map, warmest first. Each one is the 1-in-30-year low for that spot: the cold hardiness calculator's number from the same weather stations, sharpened by our microclimate model for the ground right there. Zone is our MFTC zone, set by that one bad night, not by an average.

The weather stations behind it

These are the long-record stations in and around this map, with each one's own numbers since the winter of 1995-96. The last column is this map's 30-year number right at the station, which won't match the station exactly: it's a blend of the stations around it, the way the calculator works everywhere.

Source: NOAA records through ACIS, winters 1995-96 through 2025-26. What the "carried forward," "gaps filled" and AWOS rows mean is explained in how our microclimate maps work.