Fruit Trees for Evanston, the North Shore, Lake County and Kenosha, Illinois and Wisconsin

On January 31, 2019, the weather station 3 miles southwest of Barrington read −28°F, and so did the Kenosha airport. The Waukegan airport bottomed out at −23°F in that cold wave and Palwaukee in Wheeling at −21°F. That spread runs through every neighborhood here, and it's the first thing to know when you're picking fruit trees for Evanston, the North Shore, Lake County and Kenosha. The map runs from Logan Square and Lincoln Park up the lakefront suburbs to Waukegan and Kenosha, and west across Lake County and northwest Cook County to Barrington, the Fox River, the Chain O'Lakes and Twin Lakes.

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

The big number is the 30-year planning low, the same number our cold hardiness calculator uses, nudged for the ground right around you. It's the bad night to plan for, not the record and not a promise of how often it comes. The MFTC zone is that number in half zones. The typical winter is an average year's coldest night, the kind of number USDA's map is built on. The spring layer shows how much warmer or colder a spot runs than downtown Waukegan, our reference town, on a still, clear night at bloom.

Downtown Waukegan plans for −20°F, MFTC zone 4b, with a typical winter of −8°F. The middle of the map plans for −23°F, and half the growing ground falls between −24°F and −21°F. The warm end, zone 5a, is the lakefront: the Glenwood Arts District plans for −17°F, the warmest named place we checked, and Evanston and Highland Park for −18°F. The cold end, zone 4a, is the Fox and the lake country in the northwest corner: Holiday Hills, Lily Lake and Wheatland at −27°F, Spring Grove at −28°F and Twin Lakes at −29°F, the coldest named place we checked.

Why the map looks the way it does

Lake Michigan and the city warm this map from its east edge. The lake averages 279 feet deep, gives up heat slowly all winter and seldom ices over far (Chicago's climate impacts report puts its average yearly maximum ice cover at 33 percent for 1963 to 2001). The Illinois State Water Survey figures the Great Lakes raise average winter lows by about 7°F near Lake Michigan, and the brick and pavement of the North Side and Evanston add stored heat of their own. Since 1995 the year's coldest night has averaged about −7°F at Palwaukee and −8°F at O'Hare and the Chicago Botanic Garden, against −11°F to −12°F at the Kenosha airport, Mundelein and Barrington.

The lake isn't a guarantee. Kenosha's treatment plant station sits less than 20 feet above the water and in the median year runs 3°F milder than the Kenosha airport, 7 miles away, yet it holds Kenosha's record, −31°F (1982 and 1985), and read −29°F in the cold snap of Christmas Eve 1983, the lowest of any station in or near the map. We haven't found a published explanation. Lakes shelter their shores only when they're relatively free of ice (the Wisconsin State Climatology Office), and it takes an onshore wind to carry the lake's warmth inland (WGN's weather team).

Along the shore, the towns from Glencoe north to Waukegan sit 70 to 110 feet above their local floor. Highland Park's 100-foot bluff is cut by wooded ravines that reach up to a mile inland and open onto the lake, so on a still night chilled air slides off the high ground and out over the water instead of pooling. Behind it lies the Skokie Valley, drained south by the Skokie River and the forks of the North Branch. It was the Skokie Marsh, partly drained to a peat bog that flooded every spring until the CCC rebuilt it in the 1930s as the Skokie Lagoons. Low, wet, peaty ground is frost-prone, and the floor within 3 miles of Highland Park, Winnetka and Glencoe plans for −22°F to −23°F, 4°F to 5°F colder than their downtowns. The Botanic Garden's station sits in that valley, about 10 feet above the lagoons' water, and set its record of −27°F in the January 1982 cold snap, when the old Waukegan station read −24°F.

West of there the land climbs onto the Valparaiso Moraine, whose crest runs 750 to 900 feet and peaks near Lake Zurich, with the Des Plaines River running south along its east side. Climbing doesn't buy warmth. Barrington's station, at 883 feet, has run a median 4°F colder than O'Hare (672 feet) over 43 years; Mundelein's, at 840 feet, 4°F colder than Palwaukee. On this map the cold readings in the big snaps come from the rural, snow-covered moraine and lake country of western Lake County, and snow makes the air above it colder: in January 2014, with 14 inches on the ground, the Barrington station read −19°F to O'Hare's −16°F (NWS Chicago, which cautions that co-op and airport stations sit differently).

The moraine is lumpy, and lumpy ground pools cold. Northwestern Lake County is full of glacial lakes (Volo Bog is a textbook kettle, a steep-sided lake left by a melting block of ice), and a closed hollow fills with cold air to its lowest notch before any spills out. It all drains to the Fox and the Chain O'Lakes, 15 lakes and more than 7,100 acres of water, many of them shallow (Grass Lake averages 3 feet deep). Lakes that shallow freeze, and frozen water gives no heat. The McHenry lock and dam station, on the Fox below the Chain at the map's west edge, read −32°F on January 31, 2019, the lowest of any station in or near the map in that cold wave.

The spring layer follows the same drainage, only harder. The best spring ground is the high lakefront from Fort Sheridan to Waukegan, which drains to water still in the 40s°F: North Chicago and Fort Sheridan read 1°F colder than downtown Waukegan, Lake Bluff 2°F, Evanston and Highland Park 4°F to 5°F. The Skokie and Des Plaines valleys read 9°F to 13°F colder, the Fox bottoms and the Barrington hollows 13°F to 16°F. A still May night that costs a Lake Bluff yard nothing can take the crop in Vernon Hills.

Chicago's North Side and Evanston

The warmest ground on the map is the North Side and Evanston nearest the lake. Rogers Park, the Gold Coast, Lincoln Park and Lake View plan for −18°F, Uptown, Edgewater and Andersonville for −19°F and the Glenwood Arts District for −17°F, with typical winters of about −4°F to −6°F: water on one side, block after block of brick on the other. A couple of miles back it changes. Lincoln Square plans for −20°F and Albany Park, North Park, West Ridge and Logan Square for −21°F, and their spring reading runs 9°F to 11°F below Waukegan's, against 4°F to 7°F along the lakefront.

Evanston splits the same way. It was mostly wetland and swampy forest before the 1830s, with the Potawatomi trails on the higher ridges; Ridge Avenue follows one, an old spit of glacial Lake Chicago. Downtown and South Evanston plan for −18°F and the Lakeshore Historic District −19°F, while the West End and Skevanston plan for −21°F on flat ground that reads 9°F to 11°F colder than Waukegan in spring.

On the lakefront lots, everything we sell rated −20°F or colder clears the number, including Bing sweet cherry, Santa Rosa plum and Flavortop nectarine, each with 1°F to 3°F to spare, so give those a south or west wall (Pati Vitt of the Lake County Forest Preserves told WTTW about a sun-warmed brick wall that "could be a Zone 8"). With more room: Persimmon (Montana Trial), Blushingstar peach (it came through −25°F at our place on January 13, 2024 without damage) and Lapins and Rainier sweet cherries. In the −21°F neighborhoods, start at −25°F and colder.

Wilmette to Lake Bluff: the high lakefront and the Skokie Valley

Wilmette, Lake Forest and Lake Bluff plan for −20°F, Kenilworth and Winnetka −19°F, and Glencoe, Highland Park and Highwood −18°F. The prize ground is right along the lake: on a still spring night Highwood reads 4°F colder than Waukegan, Ravinia 3°F, Lake Bluff 2°F and Fort Sheridan 1°F, some of the best spring readings of any named place on the map.

A mile or two west, in the Skokie Valley, it changes. Indian Hill in Winnetka plans for −21°F and Briergate in Highland Park −22°F, against −18°F at Hubbard Woods on Winnetka's lake side, and both read 9°F colder than Waukegan at bloom. Conway Farms in west Lake Forest reads 12°F colder. Deerfield, Bannockburn and Northbrook on the West Fork of the North Branch, and Glenview too, plan for −18°F to −21°F but read 10°F to 11°F colder in spring. Downtown Lake Forest reads 6°F colder than Waukegan; West Lake Forest, the old Everett, 10°F.

So the high lakefront gets the early bloomers: Harlayne and Tomcot apricots, Stella cherry, Contender peach, Stanley and Italian plums, and Bartlett and Seckel pears. In the valley, lean on apples and bush fruit, which can lose most of their bloom and still crop: Honeycrisp, Liberty, Zestar!® and haskap.

Waukegan, North Chicago, Zion and Winthrop Harbor

Downtown Waukegan sits at about 650 feet, 70 feet above its local floor, with the Waukegan River and the harbor below it, and plans for −20°F with a typical winter of −8°F. North Chicago plans for −21°F, the bench ground at Five Points (110 feet up) −20°F, and Great Lakes reads just 4°F colder than downtown Waukegan in spring. West of town the Skokie River rises on a flat old wetland plain near Park City, which plans for −21°F and reads 9°F colder at bloom.

North of Waukegan, Zion and Winthrop Harbor face the Zion Beach Ridge Plain, 12 miles of curving sand ridges and wet swales, with Illinois Beach State Park along the water. They plan for −22°F and read 7°F colder than Waukegan in spring; the beach ground at Camp Logan reads 10°F colder. Plant on a ridge, not in a swale. Downtown Waukegan, North Chicago and Lake Bluff have the best spring readings north of Highland Park, so that's the ground for apricots, peaches and sweet cherries.

Kenosha, Pleasant Prairie and the Wisconsin shore

Kenosha plans for −22°F, zone 4b, with a typical winter of −10°F, and the whole lakefront runs colder as you go north: −18°F at Evanston, −20°F at Waukegan, −22°F at Kenosha. The lake still shows: Kenosha's treatment plant station near lake level has a 182-day frost-free season to the airport's 165, a median last 28°F of April 6 to the airport's April 24, and a first fall 32°F that comes twelve days later.

Downtown, HarborPark and Allendale plan for −22°F to −23°F and read 5°F to 6°F colder than Waukegan at bloom. West of the old city the floor plans for −25°F, and Prairie Lake, which the map types as river bottom, plans for −25°F and reads 14°F colder than Waukegan in spring, one of the frostiest readings of any named place we checked. Pleasant Prairie plans for −22°F, and so does Carol Beach, beside the dunes and coastal wetland of Chiwaukee Prairie.

Wisconsin's DNR calls the shore from Sheboygan to Kenosha good fruit country. Near the lake, Honeycrisp and Northern Spy apples, Superior and Toka plums, and Contender, Siberian C and Blushingstar peaches all clear −22°F. Toka is a good pollenizer for Superior; our pollination maps show what goes with what. On the frosty west side, stick to apples, Evan's Bali tart cherry and bush fruit. Toward Racine, the Milwaukee, Waukesha and Racine map covers you.

Libertyville, Mundelein, Gurnee and the Des Plaines valley

The middle of Lake County is Des Plaines country, the river running south past Gurnee, Libertyville and Lincolnshire to Wheeling and Des Plaines, fed by Mill, Bull and Indian creeks. It's the map's median ground: Gurnee and Vernon Hills plan for −22°F, Libertyville, Lincolnshire and Des Plaines −21°F, Wheeling −20°F and Mundelein −23°F. Mundelein's station, at 840 feet, set its record of −26°F on January 31, 2019.

Spring is the trouble. Gurnee and Lincolnshire read 11°F colder than Waukegan on a bloom night, Vernon Hills and Grayslake 12°F, Mundelein and the river bottom at Forest River 13°F. That's floodplain (the Des Plaines rose more than 9 feet on August 24, 2007), and flat ground beside a river is where cold air settles first. Libertyville, 40 feet above its floor, reads 9°F colder. In northwest Cook, Arlington Heights plans for −21°F and reads 12°F colder, and Palatine plans for −23°F.

Apples are the backbone, Honeycrisp, Haralson and Cortland among them, since an apple needs only about 15 percent of its blossoms to set a crop (the University of Minnesota's figure). Keep plums, pears and cherries on your highest ground. Haskap, whose open flowers take 19°F, Red Lake and Montana Black Currant, and Pixwell gooseberry are the sure crops on the floor.

Barrington, Lake Zurich and the moraine

Barrington plans for −25°F, zone 4a, with a typical winter of −13°F; North Barrington, Lake Barrington and Inverness plan for −25°F, Barrington Hills and South Barrington −26°F. Frost here is about hollows, not height. South Barrington, which the map types as river bottom, reads 16°F colder than Waukegan on a bloom night, the frostiest of any named place we checked, while Barrington Hills, Inverness and Lake Barrington, on 7 to 9 percent slopes where cold air drains on past, read 6°F colder. Lake Zurich, 70 feet above its floor near the moraine's high point, plans for −22°F, 3°F warmer than the floor around it. On the Fox, the hillside at Ski Hill in Fox River Grove, 100 feet above the floor, reads even with Waukegan in spring and plans for −24°F to the village's −26°F. For Elgin and Crystal Lake, see our map of Chicago's western suburbs and the Fox Valley.

At −25°F to −26°F, trees rated −30°F and colder fit, and with Barrington's −28°F in 2019, −35°F and colder gives you room: Wolf River and Frostbite apples, Kerr or Trailman applecrab (if you only plant one tree, make it one of these), Pipestone and Alderman plums on the slopes, Meteor tart cherry, and Siberian C peach, very late ripening, on your best slope. Put the hollows into haskap, currants and aronia.

Antioch, Fox Lake, the Chain O'Lakes and Twin Lakes

The northwest corner is lake country, the Fox Chain O'Lakes in Illinois and the Kenosha County lakes north of the state line. Fox Lake plans for −23°F, Johnsburg −26°F, Holiday Hills −27°F and Spring Grove, near where the Fox comes in from Wisconsin, −28°F. In Wisconsin, Wilmot plans for −25°F, Silver Lake −26°F, Lily Lake and Wheatland −27°F and Twin Lakes −29°F. The bottoms read 12°F to 15°F colder than Waukegan in spring. The ground between the lakes is better: Grass Lake and Ingleside, on toe slopes 30 feet up, plan for −23°F and read 3°F to 4°F better than the bottoms, and Bristol, 80 feet above its floor, plans for −22°F and reads only 6°F colder than Waukegan.

Give Antioch some room. The map's −20°F there leans on the old Antioch station, whose record since 1995 covers only 12 winters, ends in 2007 and never went below −18°F. Over 72 years that station averaged −14°F for the year's coldest night and hit −29°F on January 12, 1979. Plan Antioch like its neighbors (Channel Lake −22°F, Lindenhurst −23°F, Lake Villa −24°F), and leave room down to −25°F.

This corner wants the hardiest list: Haralson, Frostbite, Wolf River and Sweet Sixteen apples, Trailman and Centennial applecrabs, Ure and Summercrisp pears on rising ground, Toka, Pipestone and Brookgold plums, Romeo and Juliet dwarf cherries and Valiant grape. Siberian C clears −29°F with 6°F to spare, Contender with 1°F.

Spring frost and bloom along Lake Michigan

Lake Michigan does its best work for fruit in spring. The water near Chicago commonly stays in the 40s°F into May, and the cool air off it holds buds back, so trees near the shore bloom after more of the frost nights have passed. In the May 14 and 15, 2016 frost, Wisconsin's fruit areas near Lake Michigan reported minimal damage while central and southern Wisconsin took the worst of it.

NOAA station records for 1991 to 2020 put the median last 32°F at April 21 at O'Hare, April 22 at the Kenosha treatment plant, April 25 at the Botanic Garden, April 28 at the Waukegan airport and Barrington, April 29 at Mundelein and the Kenosha airport, and May 5 at Streamwood, which has the shortest frost-free season here, 150 days. In a late year (1 in 10) it runs into mid or late May, and to May 31 at Streamwood. A lake helps the first fall freeze more than the last spring one: Kenosha's shore station sees its last spring frost a week before the airport, its first fall frost twelve days after.

2026 showed what a bad spring does just west of here. Five spring frosts killed about 99 percent of the bloom at Prairie Sky Orchard in Union, in McHenry County, which closed for the fall; Jonamac Orchard in Malta ran frost fans and mostly got frost rings. Open blossoms of apple, pear, cherry, peach, apricot and plum all start dying at about 28°F (Michigan State's fruit people), and that story put 25°F at up to 90 percent of apple blossoms killed.

Site comes first; the FAO's frost manual calls it "the single most important method of frost protection." Apricots, peaches, sweet cherries, plums and pears go on the high lakefront, the benches and upper slopes, apples, haskap and bush fruit lower down. Clear brush and solid fences off the downhill side so cold air keeps moving. Frost cloth of 0.5, 0.9 and 1.5 ounces per square yard buys about 4°F, 6°F and 8°F (Alabama Extension's figures). State climatologist Trent Ford expects apple bloom one to two weeks earlier by mid-century, which pulls bloom into weeks that still freeze.

What the weather records say

NOAA station records: −31°F at the Kenosha treatment plant (January 16, 1982 and January 20, 1985), −29°F at Antioch (January 12, 1979), −28°F at Barrington and the Kenosha airport (January 31, 2019), −27°F at O'Hare (January 20, 1985), Waukegan (January 19, 1985) and the Botanic Garden (January 10, 1982), −26°F at Mundelein (2019) and −21°F at Palwaukee (January 30, 2019). The January 1985 cold wave set O'Hare's and Waukegan's records and tied Kenosha's. Cold still comes in a warming climate: Illinois set its state record, −38°F, in 2019 (NOAA's State Climate Extremes Committee).

USDA's 2023 map puts most of Chicagoland in zone 6a (an average coldest night of −10°F to −5°F) and the Chicago lakefront in 6b (−5°F to 0°F); Chicago was zone 5 in 1990. Ours run 5a on the lakefront, 4b through most of Lake County and Kenosha, and 4a in the Barrington hollows and the Fox country, because USDA's map is built on the average winter and ours on the bad night you plan for.

What you can grow here

Most of what we sell clears winter on this map; even the coldest named place plans for −29°F. So the choice comes down to site and bloom timing. Every variety below has come through a temperature at or below its band's coldest planning low.

The lakefront, North Side to Waukegan: −17°F to −21°F

Apples: Liberty, Northern Spy, Golden Russet and Ashmead's Kernel. Pears: Bartlett, Seckel, Harrow Sweet and D'Anjou. Plums: Stanley, Italian, Superior and Shiro. Cherries: Lapins, Rainier, Stella and Montmorency. Apricots: Harlayne, Tomcot and Goldrich. Peaches and nectarines: Contender, Blushingstar, Redstar and Hardired. Also Montana Trial Pawpaw and SnowCzar almond. In the warmest spots, −17°F to −19°F, Baldwin apple, Bing, Santa Rosa and the −20°F nectarines fit too.

Lake County's towns and valleys, northwest Cook and the Kenosha shore: −21°F to −25°F

Apples: Honeycrisp, Haralson, Zestar!®, Cortland, Liberty and Northern Spy. Pears, on rising ground: Flemish Beauty, Bartlett and Summercrisp. Plums: Toka, Superior, Stanley and Alderman. Cherries: Lapins and Black Gold sweet cherries up high, Evan's Bali and Meteor tart cherries anywhere. Peaches: Contender, Siberian C and Blushingstar. Apricots, on your highest ground: Westcot and Sungold. Berries: haskap, currants, Pixwell gooseberry and Boyne raspberry.

The Barrington hollows, the Fox, the Chain O'Lakes and western Kenosha County: −25°F to −29°F

Apples: Haralson, Frostbite, Wolf River, Honeycrisp and Sweet Sixteen; applecrabs Kerr, Trailman and Centennial. Pears, off the low ground: Ure and Summercrisp. Plums: Toka, Pipestone and Brookgold. Cherries: Evan's Bali, Meteor, Romeo and Juliet. Peach: Siberian C on a slope. Grapes: Valiant and Frontenac. Berries: haskap, Montana Black Currant, aronia and Nanking cherry.

Rootstocks, soil and site

Roots are the weak link in a cold winter, and snow protects them: at Ed Schultz's farm in Gallatin Gateway, Montana, Bud 118 apple rootstock has seen near −50°F with no rootstock damage, under snow. Plowed town lots and windswept spots lose their snow, so mulch there. The old Lake Chicago bed is mostly fine sand, with clay and only inches of till in places; the moraine is till and sand; the Skokie Valley holds peat. Test drainage before you plant: dig 2 feet down, fill the hole, let it drain, fill it again, and if it empties in under 10 hours it's well drained. Bob Purvis's rule is that an east-facing slope is ideal because it warms quickly on a frosty spring morning; plant on the slope, not the windswept top and not down in the bottom. Net sweet cherries against birds; the Chicago-area list on pickyourown.org grows them that way.

Fruit history here

John Klehm started a nursery for cherry, apple and pear trees at Arlington Heights in 1856, when that country was potato and truck farms feeding Chicago. Pleasant Prairie farmers shipped produce by rail from Rogers Siding. Wisconsin's DNR counts families on the shore between Sheboygan and Kenosha who have grown apples for five generations, and a Racine orchard planted in 1844 was still bearing 92 years later. Today the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe keeps a microclimate map of its own grounds, and Fred Spicer has said a few spots there might qualify as zone 7.

Questions people ask

What hardiness zone is the North Shore?

Evanston, Glencoe and Highland Park plan for −18°F, MFTC zone 5a, and Waukegan −20°F, zone 4b. Inland Lake County runs −21°F to −25°F, the Barrington hollows and the Chain O'Lakes −25°F to −28°F (zone 4a). USDA's 2023 map puts most of Chicagoland in 6a and the lakefront in 6b; USDA's is based on an average winter, ours on the bad night we plan for.

When is the last frost in the north suburbs?

NOAA station records for 1991 to 2020 put the median last 32°F at April 21 at O'Hare, April 25 at the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe, April 28 at the Waukegan airport and Barrington, and May 5 at Streamwood. In a late year (1 in 10) it comes in mid-May, and as late as May 31 at Streamwood.

Does Lake Michigan protect fruit trees from frost?

Yes, mostly by holding bloom back: shore water stays in the 40s°F into May, so trees near the lake bloom after more of the frost nights. In the May 2016 frost, Wisconsin's Lake Michigan fruit areas came through with minimal damage. It helps less in an arctic outbreak; the Kenosha shore station read −27°F in 2019.

Can you grow peaches in Lake County?

Yes. Siberian C (−35°F) and Contender (−30°F) both clear every named place on the map, Contender at Twin Lakes by just 1°F. Blushingstar (−30°F) fits the lakefront and the milder towns. Peaches bloom early, so plant them on the high lakefront or the upper part of a slope, never in a creek bottom.

What fruit trees grow in Kenosha?

Downtown Kenosha plans for −22°F, MFTC zone 4b. Honeycrisp and Northern Spy apples, Superior and Toka plums, Lapins sweet cherry, Evan's Bali tart cherry and Contender peach all clear it. The west side's low ground plans near −25°F and is much frostier in spring, so keep apricots and pears near the lake.

Where are the frost pockets around Barrington and the Chain O'Lakes?

The hollows and river bottoms. On a still bloom night South Barrington reads 16°F colder than downtown Waukegan, the Fox bottoms at Holiday Hills and Port Barrington 14°F colder, and Channel Lake 13°F colder. The slopes that drain do much better: Barrington Hills and Inverness read 6°F colder, and Ski Hill in Fox River Grove reads even with Waukegan.

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.