Fruit Trees for Aurora, Naperville, Elgin and the Fox Valley, Illinois

On January 31, 2019, the weather station at the Aurora Municipal Airport in Sugar Grove read −32°F, the lowest reading in northern Illinois that morning, while O'Hare read −23°F and Midway −22°F. That's no fluke: in the median year the airport's coldest night runs 6°F colder than the Aurora station in town, 9 miles east. Picking fruit trees for Aurora, Naperville, Elgin and the Fox Valley starts with knowing where you sit in that spread. The map covers Chicago's western and northwest suburbs, from Crystal Lake and Lake Zurich south to Plainfield and Lockport, and from O'Hare west to Big Rock and Maple Park.

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 around you. It's a safe number to plan on, 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 Naperville on a still, clear night at bloom.

Downtown Naperville, our reference, plans for −24°F, MFTC zone 4b, with a typical winter of −11°F. That's also the middle of the map: half the growing ground plans between −25°F and −23°F. The warm end, zone 5a, is the suburbs on the east side, toward O'Hare: Prospect Heights and Wheeling at −19°F, Westmont, Wood Dale and Buffalo Grove at −20°F. The cold end, zone 4a, is the open country west and southwest of Aurora: Big Rock, Blackberry Woods and Millhurst, south of Plano, at −29°F, the coldest named places on the map.

Why the map looks the way it does

It gets colder as you go west, away from the city and from Lake Michigan, which sits 15 to 25 miles east of the map's edge. On January 23, 2026, Northerly Island on the lakefront read −8°F, O'Hare −11°F and West Chicago −12°F. Since the 1995-96 winter the average year's coldest night has run −7°F at the Palwaukee airport, −8°F at O'Hare, −11°F at the Aurora station in town and −15°F at the Aurora airport. The State Climatologist credits Lake Michigan and the built-up metro for putting most of Chicagoland in USDA zone 6a while most of northern Illinois is 5b.

Open ground matters as much as distance. The Aurora airport covers 1,100 acres in open farmland 8 miles west of the city, at 701 feet. The in-town Aurora station sits lower, at 675 feet, yet runs 6°F milder in the median year, and in the January 2009 cold snap it read −22°F to the airport's −33°F. Open fields lose heat to a clear sky with nothing to give any back, while pavement and buildings store it and leak it at night; the State Climatologist notes the countryside can run a few degrees cooler than town on frost nights.

The Fox runs the length of the map in an old glacial meltwater channel: a narrow trench between bluffs from Algonquin to Aurora, a wider plain below, with the Marseilles Moraine, a low till ridge, following its east side south from South Elgin. We haven't found a published cold-air study for the Fox, but the landforms fit the textbook. On a still, clear night chilled air slides off the uplands, down the bluffs and the creek valleys (Tyler, Ferson and Poplar among them), and the floor makes its own cold on top of that. Most of the river towns sit on that floor. The map plans for −26°F at Algonquin, St. Charles and South Elgin, right on the floor, while Carpentersville, on the upland 140 feet above it, plans for −23°F. The Fox stays open below the dams at Algonquin, Carpentersville and Elgin in hard cold, but we haven't found a study of how far that warms the banks, and the map still plans the bottoms cold. A river floor is still a floor.

West of the river is the cold sink. The Kane County farm belt falls from 964 feet at Lily Lake to 720 feet at Sugar Grove, 13 miles south. We haven't found a published explanation for why the Aurora airport is the cold spot of northern Illinois; open fields far from town heat fit the physics. The floor within 3 miles of Sugar Grove plans for −28°F, and the coldest tenth of the ground there −30°F. Kane County was the coldest place in northern Illinois on January 30 and 31, 2019, and frost advisories often stop at its line: the one on October 9, 2023 covered Kane, McHenry, Lake and DeKalb counties and left Cook and DuPage out.

East of the Fox, the Valparaiso Moraine's belt of till and sand crests at 750 to 900 feet, highest near Lake Zurich. Height alone doesn't decide much on a still night. Barrington's station, at 883 feet, has run a median 4°F colder than O'Hare, at 672 feet, over 43 years, and its −28°F in 2019 was a record; that fits rolling country farther from the city's heat. The lowest ground is the Des Plaines valley, the old outlet of glacial Lake Chicago, around 600 feet. The map plans Lockport's floor for −26°F, as cold as the lowest reading in 43 years at the Brandon Road Lock station downriver in Joliet, which read only −22°F in 2019 and has the longest frost-free season here. We haven't found a published explanation; it sits by the river and the Sanitary and Ship Canal.

The planning low leans on 30 winters of station records, with fine-scale terrain at a quarter strength, so it mostly follows the big west-to-east gradient. The spring layer is the terrain at full strength on a still bloom night, when frost pools usually top out 30 to 200 feet up, so the bluffs and rises light up. Forest Hills, 180 feet above its floor near Campton Hills, plans for −22°F but reads 12°F warmer than Naperville at bloom, the warmest spring reading of any named place on the map. Ringl's River Gardens, on the Fox by East Dundee, and Millhurst read 5°F colder, the coldest of any named place.

Aurora, Montgomery, Oswego and Yorkville

Aurora's historic downtown sits on Stolp Island in the Fox, at 632 feet on the trench floor: −24°F, MFTC zone 4b, typical winter −11°F, and 3°F colder than Naperville at bloom. The east side climbs onto the outer face of the Marseilles Moraine and warms. Marywood, 2.8 miles north-northeast and 60 feet up, plans for −21°F and reads 2°F warmer than Naperville; Scraper-Moecherville plans for −22°F and Eola, on the Far East Side along Eola Road, −21°F. North Aurora, upstream, and Montgomery, downstream, both on the river bottom, plan for −25°F, as does Oswego, and Yorkville, at 596 feet, plans for −26°F, with benches within 3 miles at −22°F. Knob Hill, a hamlet on a bench 130 feet up about 4 miles southwest of Yorkville, plans for −22°F and reads 7°F warmer at bloom.

On the floors, plant Honeycrisp, Haralson and Zestar!® apples, Montmorency tart cherry (−30°F) and Toka plum. Save the east-side rises for Contender peach (−30°F) and Lapins sweet cherry. Tom McCamant grows Contender at Forbidden Fruit Orchard in Paradise, Montana, and it's the only commercial peach we know of that has taken −32°F.

Naperville, Wheaton and the DuPage River towns

Downtown Naperville sits on the floor of the West Branch of the DuPage River, along the Riverwalk at 681 feet: −24°F, MFTC zone 4b, typical winter −11°F, about as cold as the coldest tenth of the ground within 3 miles. The floor around it plans for −23°F and what little bench ground there is −20°F; the land was flat prairie, and its notable hills are man-made, like Greene Valley Hill, an old dump. Tamarack, the enclave in the southwest, plans for −23°F. Upstream, Warrenville plans for −25°F on the floor and Wheaton −22°F, while Winfield plans for −21°F and reads 4°F warmer than Naperville at bloom. On the East Branch, Lisle plans for −23°F and Woodridge, 60 feet up, −21°F. NOAA's Morton Arboretum station in Lisle is mild in midwinter yet has a short frost season, 159 days; we haven't found where on the grounds it sits. Barbers Corners, 70 feet up by Bolingbrook, reads 7°F warmer at bloom, and Plainfield, on the river bottom, plans for −24°F.

Downtown takes Liberty and Northern Spy (−30°F) apples and Stanley plum (−30°F). The −21°F to −22°F ground in Wheaton, Winfield and Woodridge can add Blushingstar peach (−25°F), which came through −25°F at our place on January 13, 2024 without damage.

St. Charles, Geneva and Batavia

Downtown St. Charles, on the river at 692 feet, plans for −26°F, MFTC zone 4a, typical winter −12°F, and reads 2°F colder than Naperville at bloom. Geneva, on a toe slope just off the floor, plans for −25°F but reads 3°F warmer; Batavia plans for −24°F and reads 3°F warmer. The benches within 3 miles of all three plan for −21°F to −22°F. North of St. Charles, under a mile shows the whole story. Five Island Park, at river level about 4 miles north of downtown, plans for −26°F and reads 2°F colder than Naperville at bloom; Fox River Heights, 0.4 mile south on a 6 percent slope 50 feet up, −25°F and 6°F warmer; Valley View, 0.9 mile east-southeast on a 9 percent hillside, −24°F and 7°F warmer. West of downtown, Oak Crest, on a bench 100 feet up, plans for −22°F and reads 9°F warmer, and Rainbow Hills −23°F and 8°F warmer, while Wildrose Valley and Thornley, in the low ground, plan for −26°F.

Keep the St. Charles floor to apples, tart cherries and bush fruit. Oak Crest, Valley View and Rainbow Hills are the place for Westcot and Sungold apricots, Superior and Italian plums, Bartlett and Seckel pears (−35°F) and Contender peach. Check our pollination maps for which plums and apricots pollenize each other.

Elgin, South Elgin and the Dundees

Elgin grew where the Fox could be bridged. Downtown plans for −24°F, MFTC zone 4b, typical winter −12°F, and reads 3°F warmer than Naperville at bloom; the Elgin Historic District, 60 feet up on the east side, plans for −23°F and reads 4°F warmer. The west side rises onto the Kane uplands: Almora Heights plans for −23°F, and Weldwood Oaks, on a 15 percent hillside, −22°F and 9°F warmer at bloom. South Elgin, on the river, plans for −26°F and reads 2°F colder. North of town the trench stays narrow. Richardson, on the Fox between East Dundee and Elgin, plans for −25°F and reads 3°F colder, and Ringl's River Gardens, beside it, 5°F colder. West Dundee plans for −25°F, East Dundee and Sleepy Hollow −24°F. Hickory Hollow, on a bench 130 feet up southwest of Sleepy Hollow, plans for −22°F and reads 9°F warmer. Across the river, Carpentersville plans for −23°F and reads 4°F warmer, and Middlebury, a hamlet on a hillside north of it, 10°F warmer.

Put apples and Evan's Bali tart cherry on the bottoms, and save Hickory Hollow, Weldwood Oaks and Middlebury for apricots and sweet cherries.

Algonquin, Cary, Crystal Lake and the McHenry County line

Above Algonquin the Fox runs flat through lakes and marshes toward the Wisconsin line. Algonquin, on the river bottom at 741 feet, plans for −26°F, MFTC zone 4a, with a typical winter of −14°F, the coldest typical winter of the main towns; Haegers Bend, on the bottom toward Cary, plans for −27°F. Cary, in a draw at 805 feet, and Fox River Grove plan for −26°F, but Ski Hill, on a hillside 110 feet up 0.7 mile east-northeast of Fox River Grove, plans for −24°F and reads 11°F warmer than Naperville at bloom, the second-warmest spring reading of any named place on the map.

Downtown Crystal Lake, at 911 feet, plans for −23°F, 40 feet above a floor at −26°F. The lake, 1.6 miles southwest and 41 feet deep at most, froze hard enough that ice was cut and shipped to Chicago in the early 1900s, and a lake that freezes does nothing for its shore in midwinter: Lakewood, on part of that shore, plans for −26°F and reads 3°F colder at bloom. Lake in the Hills plans for −25°F, Huntley −24°F, Pingree Grove, home of Goebbert's apple orchard, −23°F, and Union −27°F.

Sugar Grove, Big Rock, Elburn and the Kane County farm belt

This is the cold end. Sugar Grove plans for −27°F, MFTC zone 4a, typical winter −11°F, and the map puts the Aurora airport at −30°F. Big Rock, 5.3 miles west on the bottom, plans for −29°F with a typical winter of −13°F; Blackberry Woods, north of Sugar Grove, −29°F; Kaneville, Plano and Millbrook −27°F; and Millhurst, on the bottom at 558 feet south of Plano, −29°F and 5°F colder than Naperville at bloom. Go north and up and it eases. Elburn, at 851 feet, plans for −25°F and Lily Lake, at 964 feet, −23°F and 4°F warmer at bloom. The high ground near Campton Hills holds several of the warmest spring readings of any named place on the map: Forest Hills 12°F warmer than Naperville, Fair Oaks 10°F, and High Point, at 978 feet and 170 feet above its floor, −22°F and 9°F warmer. Kuipers Family Farm, on 230 acres in Maple Park at the map's west edge, presses cider on site, and its apples run from Paula Red in mid-August to Blushing Golden in late October.

Around Sugar Grove and Big Rock, plan for −30°F: Haralson, Honeycrisp, Frostbite and Wolf River apples, Kerr applecrab, Evan's Bali tart cherry and honeyberry. The Campton Hills and Lily Lake high ground can take Westcot apricot, Lapins cherry and Siberian C peach (−35°F). Farther northwest, Rockford has its own Rockford and Rock River map.

Barrington, Schaumburg, Streamwood and the moraine

Barrington, at 826 feet, plans for −25°F, MFTC zone 4a, typical winter −13°F, and reads 1°F warmer than Naperville at bloom. Barrington Hills, horse country with Flint Creek and Lakes Hawley, Hawthorne and Keene on its east side, plans for −26°F at the village point, 50 feet up a 6 percent slope, and reads 5°F warmer. South Barrington, on bottom ground 4 miles south of Barrington, plans for −26°F and reads 5°F colder. Lake Zurich, near the moraine's high point, plans for −22°F in town, 70 feet above a floor at −25°F, and Long Grove −22°F; Hawthorn Woods and Kildeer plan for −24°F, and Hickory Hills, on bottom ground just north of Kildeer, reads 5°F colder at bloom. Streamwood and Bartlett plan for −25°F. NOAA's Streamwood station has the shortest frost season here, 150 days (tied with Marengo's), with a median last 32°F of May 5 and May 31 in a late year, though it has only 16 years on file. Hanover Park plans for −24°F; Keeneyville, south of it, −25°F and 3°F colder at bloom. Schaumburg plans for −24°F and Palatine −23°F.

Elmhurst, Downers Grove and the inner suburbs, down to Lemont and Lockport

East of Wheaton the suburbs fill in and the map warms toward O'Hare. Elmhurst, Westmont, Darien, Wood Dale, Buffalo Grove and Mount Prospect plan for −20°F, right on the line between zones 4b and 5a; Hinsdale and Arlington Heights −21°F; Wheeling and Prospect Heights −19°F (5a), the warmest named places on the map, with a typical winter of −6°F. Low spots still show. Downers Grove's center sits on the floor at 713 feet and plans for −23°F, 2°F colder than Naperville at bloom, with benches nearby at −20°F; Flowerfield, on bottom ground between Glen Ellyn and Lombard, and Itasca plan for −23°F and read 3°F colder.

South, Lemont sits on a hillside on the Des Plaines' south bank, facing Waterfall Glen's bluffs: −23°F at 604 feet. Lockport, low in the valley at 589 feet, plans for −26°F, zone 4a, with benches at −23°F; Crest Hill, 80 feet above its floor, −23°F; Homer Glen, up at 734 feet, −22°F. Apples on Oak in Lockport grows 90 to 100 apple varieties. The inner suburbs grow the widest list on the map: Baldwin apple, Redstar and Blushingstar peaches, Hardired nectarine and Persimmon (Montana Trial), all −25°F, and Montana Trial Pawpaw (−30°F). Up the lake, Racine, Milwaukee and Waukesha have the Milwaukee map.

Spring frost and bloom in the western suburbs

NOAA's 1991 to 2020 frost dates run about three weeks apart. The median last 32°F comes April 15 at Brandon Road Lock, April 21 at O'Hare and the Aurora station in town, April 26 at Elgin, April 28 at West Chicago, Barrington and the Morton Arboretum, April 30 at the Aurora airport and May 5 at Streamwood; in a late year (1 in 10) it runs to May 10 at O'Hare and May 31 at Streamwood. The last 28°F, about where open blossoms start dying, comes April 5 to 6 at Brandon Road, O'Hare and Palwaukee and April 20 to 24 at West Chicago, the Aurora airport and Streamwood. O'Hare has seen 31°F as late as May 21, and the State Climatologist notes frost can form on the ground when the 5-foot reading is 34°F or 35°F.

Northern Illinois had five spring frosts in 2026. Prairie Sky Orchard in Union, about 2,500 dwarf apple and pear trees, lost 99 percent of its blooms and closed for the fall harvest, while Jonamac Orchard at Malta, west of the map, came through with mostly frost rings because it runs frost fans. On a still bloom night the bottoms named on this map read up to 5°F colder than Naperville and the bluffs up to 12°F warmer, and 3°F to 4°F can separate no crop from a full one. In 2012, after a warm March, frosts the week of April 12 killed about 75 percent of the apples at a Woodstock orchard just north of the map. We saw the same thing in Montana in 2026: growers higher on the valley floor and up on the benches fared much better than those down low.

Site first. Put apricots, peaches, plums and sweet cherries on your highest ground and apples, haskap and bush fruit lower: only about 15 percent of apple blossoms need to set for a crop, and open haskap flowers take 19°F. Illinois Extension figures apple buds start dying below 28°F from tight cluster through bloom, with up to 90 percent lost below 25°F. In a yard, frost cloth at 0.5, 0.9 and 1.5 ounces per square yard gains about 4°F, 6°F and 8°F. Don't let a hedge or fence across the low end of the yard dam the cold. In fall the first 32°F comes a median October 10 at the Aurora airport and October 19 at O'Hare, so taper water from mid-August and let trees harden off.

What the weather records say

NOAA's long-record stations set their lows on January 20, 1985: O'Hare and Elgin −27°F, Marengo, on the map's northwest edge, −28°F, and the in-town Aurora station, the Morton Arboretum and Brandon Road Lock −26°F. In that cold snap every station read between −24°F and −28°F, a flat pattern that fits deep arctic air filling the whole region. The Aurora airport set its −33°F on January 16, 2009, in a cold snap when O'Hare read −18°F, a 15°F spread that fits a calm, clear night pooling cold in open country. Illinois set its state record of −38°F in 2019. USDA's 2023 map puts most of the Chicago area in zone 6a, the lakefront in 6b and most of northern Illinois in 5b. Our typical winters run from −6°F at Prospect Heights to −14°F at Algonquin, but our MFTC zones read more than a full zone colder than USDA's because USDA's is built on an average winter and ours on the bad night we plan for.

What you can grow here

Inner suburbs and warm rises, −19°F to −22°F. Elmhurst, Westmont, Hinsdale, Wheeling, Wheaton, Winfield, Woodridge, Marywood and Eola in Aurora, Oak Crest and Knob Hill. Good picks: Honeycrisp, Liberty, Northern Spy and Baldwin apples; Bartlett, Seckel and D'Anjou (−30°F) pears; Stanley and Italian plums; Lapins, Gold and Rainier sweet cherries (Rainier cracks where it rains at ripening); Montmorency tart cherry; Goldrich and Westcot apricots; and Contender, Blushingstar and Redstar peaches.

River towns, DuPage floors and the moraine, −23°F to −26°F. Downtown Naperville, Aurora, Elgin and the Tri-Cities, Algonquin, Crystal Lake, Barrington, Streamwood, Lockport and most of the map. Good picks: Honeycrisp, Haralson, Zestar!®, Empire, Liberty and Northern Spy apples; Toka, Superior, Italian and Stanley plums; Evan's Bali and Montmorency tart cherries; Lapins, Gold and Rainier sweet cherries; Siberian C, the hardiest peach we think is out there (very late ripening), and Contender; Westcot and Sungold apricots on the slope; La Crescent and Brianna grapes; honeyberry, Red Lake currant and Boyne raspberry. Keep pears, which bloom early, on the high side of the lot. Blushingstar peach (−25°F) is worth a try on the warmer side of this band, against a south wall in town.

The open Kane farm belt and the coldest bottoms, −27°F to −30°F. Sugar Grove, Big Rock, Kaneville, Plano, Millhurst, Union, Haegers Bend and the country around the Aurora airport. Stick with what has come through −40°F or colder: Mantet and Norda, Haralson, Honeycrisp, Frostbite, Wolf River and Zestar!® apples; Kerr, Chestnut and Centennial applecrabs and Trailman; Summercrisp and Ure pears on the rises; Toka and Alderman plums; Evan's Bali and Meteor tart cherries; honeyberry and Montana Black Currant. Ed Schultz, of Gallatin Gateway, Montana, saw zero winter injury on Centennial after a winter that hit −47°F. If you plant only one tree out there, make it Kerr or Trailman.

Rootstocks, soil and pests. Illinois Extension recommends semi-dwarf apples here; M.7 trees may need support from year 4 to about year 10, and dwarf graft unions go 3 to 4 inches above the soil. Roots are the weak link, and G.935 is measured among the hardiest dwarfing apple roots (3°F to −2°F, against 11°F to 7°F for M.26), so use it where snow won't stay. Clay soils take water at 0.06 inch an hour or less, against up to 30 inches an hour in sands and gravels, so test drainage before you plant. Plant two apples for pollen; Illinois Extension notes Winesap's pollen is sterile, and a flowering crab blooming at the same time can be the pollenizer. Voles were bad in northern Illinois orchards in 2026, so guard trunks at the soil line, and Extension flags apple scab and fire blight. Our Chicago Hardy Fig has come through −10°F, short of any number here; a widely copied Chicago-area list grows it against a south wall with mulch.

Fruit history here

Naperville was a nursery town. Lewis Ellsworth opened his nursery in 1849 at the base of Fort Hill, now North Central College; by 1857 more than 20 men worked there shipping trees across the country, and in 1860 it won the State Agricultural Society's prize for the best fruit and ornamental nursery. Ernst Von Oven started the Naperville Nurseries in 1866 west of town between the roads to Aurora and Oswego, and his family ran it until retail sales ended in 1950 and wholesale about ten years later. Only a water tower remains.

Questions people ask

What hardiness zone are Naperville, Aurora and Elgin?

All three plan for −24°F downtown, MFTC zone 4b, with typical winters of −11°F to −12°F. USDA's 2023 map puts most of the Chicago area in 6a; USDA's zone is based on an average winter, ours on the bad night we plan for. Open country runs colder: Sugar Grove plans for −27°F, zone 4a.

When is the last frost in the western suburbs?

NOAA station records for 1991 to 2020 put the median last 32°F at April 21 at O'Hare and in Aurora, April 28 at Barrington and May 5 at Streamwood. In a late year (1 in 10) it comes in mid to late May.

Why is the Aurora airport so cold?

It sits on open farmland in Sugar Grove, 8 miles west of Aurora, and in the median year its coldest night runs 6°F colder than the Aurora station in town. It had northern Illinois' lowest reading, −32°F, on January 31, 2019. We haven't found a published study of why; open fields far from town heat fit the physics.

Can you grow peaches in the Chicago suburbs?

Yes, with the right peach. Siberian C (−35°F) clears every named place on the map, Contender (−30°F) all but the coldest open ground, and Blushingstar (−25°F) the inner suburbs. Peaches bloom early, so plant them on your highest ground and count on the tree before the crop.

What fruit trees grow in Naperville?

Downtown Naperville plans for −24°F, MFTC zone 4b. Honeycrisp, Haralson, Zestar!® and Liberty apples, Stanley and Toka plums, Lapins sweet cherry, Evan's Bali tart cherry and Contender peach all clear it. On the −21°F to −22°F ground toward Wheaton and Woodridge, Blushingstar peach and Baldwin apple fit too.

Where are the frost pockets in the Fox Valley?

The river and creek bottoms. On a still bloom night Ringl's River Gardens near East Dundee and Millhurst south of Plano read 5°F colder than Naperville, and downtown Aurora, St. Charles and Algonquin 2°F to 3°F colder. The bluffs are the opposite: Ski Hill above Fox River Grove reads 11°F warmer and Oak Crest west of St. Charles 9°F warmer.

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.