Fruit Trees for Cincinnati, Mason, Hamilton and Northern Kentucky

On January 28, 1963, the old downtown Cincinnati weather station read −7°F. In the same cold snap the Lunken Field station, 5 miles east on the Little Miami bottom, read −20°F and the Fairfield station up the Great Miami −21°F. That's what growing fruit trees for Cincinnati, Mason, Hamilton and Northern Kentucky comes down to: where cold air runs on a still night, and where it settles. The map runs from Hamilton, Fairfield and Lebanon in Southwest Ohio south across the river to Florence and Alexandria, and Harrison and Lawrenceburg on the Indiana line east to Batavia and Goshen.

By our standards Greater Cincinnati is mild. The coldest named place we checked plans for −23°F and nearly everything we sell has come through colder, so across the Tri-State bloom nights, not winter, decide most of what you'll pick. 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 on each spot is its 30-year planning low. It's what our cold hardiness calculator gives, tuned to the terrain, and it's meant as a safe number to plan around: not the record, and not a promise of how often that night comes. Split it into half zones and you get the MFTC zone. Typical winter is the coldest night of an average year, closer to what USDA zones are built from. The spring layer shows how much warmer or colder a spot runs than downtown Cincinnati on a still, clear night at bloom.

Downtown, our reference, plans for −13°F, MFTC zone 5b, with a typical winter of 3°F. The middle of the map's growing ground plans for −16°F, and nine tenths of it falls between −20°F and −12°F. The warm end is the hills, like Fort Thomas at −11°F and Fort Mitchell at −12°F. The cold end, zone 4b, is the Great Miami floor: South Hamilton −23°F, Hamilton −22°F, Fairfield −21°F. On a still bloom night the named places we checked run from 12°F colder than downtown (Constance, on the Kentucky bank, and South Fairmount) to 10°F warmer (the crown of Mount Adams).

Why the map looks the way it does

The Ohio runs west through a trench 1 to 3 miles wide with steep sides, its bed about 500 feet below the plateau where the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky airport sits; the lowest ground is 455 feet, the pool behind Markland Dam. Everything in this airshed drains to it: Mill Creek, the Little Miami past Loveland and Milford, the Great Miami from Hamilton, and the Licking between Covington and Newport. On a clear, calm night cold air slides off the uplands, follows those valleys down and spreads over their floors, with milder air riding above.

The stations back it up. Over 17 years the old Milford station, at 571 feet in the Little Miami valley, ran a median 9°F colder on the year's coldest night than the old downtown station, and the old Camp Dennison station, just north of Milford, ran 8°F colder over 19 years. A Milford station was the coldest of the long-record stations in the January 1968 and January 1984 cold snaps. The Fernbank station, by the Ohio on the far West Side, ran 3°F colder than downtown and led them all at −23°F in January 1985. The river doesn't keep its bottoms warm.

The city is the other warm spot. In January 1968 the old downtown station read −1°F against −12°F at Lunken and −14°F at Milford. Pavement and buildings hold the day's heat, most of all on calm, clear nights. Downtown plans for −13°F, 3°F warmer than the floor within 3 miles.

Height alone doesn't buy warmth. The airport station sits at 861 feet on a broad, gently rolling plateau, 386 feet above Lunken, yet over 69 years it has run a median 3°F colder than Lunken on the year's coldest night. Most of a cold night's chill is made right where it sits, and a wide upland with nowhere for the cold to go makes plenty of its own. What keeps ground warm is lower ground close below it. Fort Thomas, 380 feet above its local floor, plans for −11°F and reads 7°F warmer than downtown at bloom; Dayton, Kentucky, on the river floor under 3 miles away and about 340 feet lower, plans for −15°F and reads 5°F colder. On spring frost nights the cold layer usually tops out 30 to 200 feet up, by the FAO's frost manual, so the hill neighborhoods sit above it and the river towns sit in it.

North of the city it gets colder. The Butler County Regional Airport station at Hamilton runs a median 5°F colder than Lunken, and the Fairfield station, with 103 years on file, 3°F colder. The Mill Creek valley, a remnant of the Ohio's old "Deep Stage" valley with a small creek in it now, carries that cold south: Sharonville, Evendale and Reading plan for −19°F on its floor. A broad floor well away from the city's heat makes and holds its own cold.

Water doesn't change much. The Ohio rarely freezes here, but open river is still low ground, and the lakes are small and man-made. All of this is the still-night pattern. In deep arctic air it flattens (on January 19, 1994 the long-record stations all read −20°F to −24°F), and sometimes it flips: in the December 1989 cold snap the Cheviot station, at 891 feet on the West Side hills, read −24°F while Lunken read −14°F.

Downtown, Over-the-Rhine and the Seven Hills

The Queen City's Seven Hills, named in an 1853 article, ring the basin: Mount Adams, Walnut Hills, Mount Auburn, Vine Street Hill, College Hill, Fairmount and Mount Harrison, now Price Hill. The basin is flat, built-up valley floor. Downtown and Over-the-Rhine plan for −13°F and the West End −15°F, and at bloom Over-the-Rhine reads 4°F colder than downtown, Pendleton 2°F colder and Queensgate 5°F colder.

The hills read warm. Mount Adams plans for −12°F and reads 7°F warmer at bloom, its crown 10°F warmer. Walnut Hills and Mount Auburn plan for −12°F and read 4°F and 5°F warmer, the Mount Auburn Historic District −11°F and 9°F warmer. East Price Hill plans for −12°F and reads 4°F warmer, while Lower Price Hill, less than a mile away and 340 feet lower, reads 4°F colder. In the valley to the north, South Fairmount reads 12°F colder and North Fairmount 9°F colder. Longworth planted his vineyards on the hills ringing the basin in the 1840s and 1850s (Mount Adams, Walnut Hills, Eden Park, Mount Tusculum, Alms Park), favoring sloping, rocky ground that was hard to build on. We haven't found a source tying his choice to frost, but the map puts Mount Adams and Walnut Hills among the warmest bloom ground in the city. That's the ground for apricots, peaches and sweet cherries, but town trees bloom early and a south wall earliest of all, so give apricots an east face.

The West Side, Delhi and the river bottoms toward Indiana

West of Mill Creek the land rises to an upland at 840 to 940 feet. Mount Airy plans for −13°F and reads 5°F warmer than downtown at bloom, Westwood −14°F and 3°F warmer, Cheviot −14°F and even, Delhi −12°F and 6°F warmer, and East Westwood and English Woods, on the shoulders above the valleys, read 8°F warmer.

Below the bluffs the Ohio bottoms plan for −15°F to −16°F and run cold at bloom: Sayler Park 3°F colder than downtown, Riverside 7°F colder, Addyston 9°F colder. Across the river, Constance, at the Kentucky end of the Anderson Ferry, reads 12°F colder, tied with South Fairmount for the coldest spring reading of any named place we checked. North Bend, on a bench 110 feet up, plans for −14°F and reads 4°F warmer, while Cleves, less than a mile north at 498 feet, plans for −17°F and reads 7°F colder. Miamitown plans for −18°F and Harrison −19°F, and Lawrenceburg, on the Ohio bottom in Indiana, −17°F, all reading 5°F to 6°F colder at bloom. Within 3 miles of Harrison the floor plans for −19°F and the slopes −16°F. Plant the slope.

Hyde Park, Mount Lookout, Mount Washington and the East End

East of downtown the hilltops plan for −13°F to −15°F, but at bloom it matters where the cold can go. O'Bryonville reads 3°F warmer than downtown. Hyde Park sits 160 feet above the floor on flat ground and reads 5°F colder, and Mount Lookout's center, in a draw, 6°F colder; a slope is only as good as its outlet, and flat hilltops make their own cold. Mount Washington plans for −13°F and reads 1°F colder, Turpin Hills −13°F and 3°F warmer, Forestville −14°F and 2°F warmer. On the floor, Columbia-Tusculum reads 3°F colder, Linwood 5°F colder and California, at the Little Miami's mouth, 7°F colder.

Lunken Airport, "Sunken Lunken," sits on that bottom behind a 5-mile levee. The map reads the ground around it 5°F to 7°F colder at bloom, yet the Lunken station's median last 32°F (April 12) comes ten days before the airport's in Kentucky. We haven't found a published explanation. River-valley fog can hold off a freeze, and fog is one reason the main airport left Lunken in 1947, but we haven't seen anyone tie the two together.

The Mill Creek valley, Blue Ash and the northern suburbs

Mill Creek runs 28.4 miles from Liberty Township to the Ohio, and its floor, long the city's industrial corridor, runs cold despite the building. Camp Washington plans for −17°F and reads 3°F colder than downtown at bloom, Northside and Carthage −18°F and 4°F colder, Reading −19°F and 5°F colder, Sharonville −19°F and 8°F colder. Glendale, Evendale, Woodlawn and Springdale plan for −19°F, Lockland and Wyoming −18°F.

Climb out and it warms: College Hill plans for −15°F and reads 2°F warmer, Pleasant Ridge −14°F and 3°F warmer. Blue Ash plans for −15°F and reads 2°F colder, Montgomery −17°F and 1°F warmer, and Madeira, its center in a draw, −18°F and 6°F colder. Put apricots and peaches on the rises and leave the draws to apples, currants and honeyberries.

Hamilton, Fairfield, West Chester, Mason and Lebanon

On the Great Miami floor at 596 feet, Hamilton plans for −22°F, MFTC zone 4b, with a typical winter of −5°F, and reads 4°F colder than downtown at bloom. German Village plans for −22°F, Lindenwald and Rossville −21°F, South Hamilton −23°F, and even the slopes within 3 miles plan for −18°F. Fairfield plans for −21°F (zone 4b) and reads 5°F colder, and Millville, west of Hamilton, −22°F and 11°F colder.

Olde West Chester, on low ground at 656 feet, plans for −20°F, while Beckett Ridge and Tylersville, about 2 miles off on benches 220 to 230 feet up, plan for −17°F and −16°F and read 4°F and 6°F warmer than downtown at bloom. Mason, at 805 feet, plans for −18°F (zone 5a), typical winter −3°F, and reads 1°F colder. Monroe, on a bench, plans for −16°F and reads 2°F warmer. Lebanon, the Warren County seat, plans for −17°F and reads 1°F colder, with the benches within 3 miles at −15°F. Middletown, Franklin and Springboro are on our Dayton, Kettering and Springfield map.

Milford, Loveland and the Little Miami valley

The Little Miami, a National Wild and Scenic River since 1973, runs past Kings Mills, Loveland, Milford, Terrace Park and Mariemont, and its floor runs cold. Loveland's historic downtown, in its small valley on both banks, plans for close to −20°F and reads 6°F colder than downtown at bloom; most homes are on the hills above, where the benches within 3 miles plan for −16°F. Milford, where the East Fork comes in, plans for −19°F and reads 7°F colder, Camp Dennison −19°F and 4°F colder, Newtown −17°F and 8°F colder.

The ground above the valley is the place for fruit. Mariemont, on a terrace 100 feet up, plans for −15°F, and Indian Hill, from open fields to steep wooded slopes, −16°F and 2°F warmer at bloom. In Clermont County, Batavia, on its river bottom, plans for −18°F and reads 7°F colder, while Withamsville, Mount Carmel and Glen Este on the upland plan for −14°F to −15°F and read about even to 2°F warmer.

Covington, Newport, Fort Thomas and the Boone County plateau

The river cities of Northern Kentucky sit on the floor where the Licking meets the Ohio. Covington plans for −14°F and reads 3°F colder than downtown at bloom, Newport −14°F and 2°F colder, Bellevue −15°F and 3°F colder, Dayton −15°F and 5°F colder; upriver, Melbourne reads 9°F colder. Then the land climbs 300 feet and more. General Sheridan picked the Fort Thomas site in 1887 as "the Highlands," to replace the flood-prone Newport Barracks. It plans for −11°F, the warmest named place we checked, and reads 7°F warmer at bloom. Highland Heights and Cold Spring plan for −12°F and read 6°F warmer, Crestview 8°F warmer. Kenton County runs from 455 to 960 feet in the Outer Bluegrass, and the hills around Covington read the same: Fort Mitchell −12°F and 6°F warmer, Fort Wright −12°F and 5°F warmer, Kenton Hills −11°F and 8°F warmer. That's NKY's ground for apricots, peaches and sweet cherries.

The airport sits near Hebron on the plateau, about 12 miles southwest of downtown. In winter the upland here is warm ground: Florence, at 925 feet, plans for −12°F, Erlanger −12°F, Independence −13°F, Burlington −14°F. At bloom it splits. Florence, Erlanger and Burlington read about even with downtown and Independence 3°F warmer, but the ground around Hebron reads 7°F colder and Union 6°F colder, and the airport station's last spring 32°F runs to May 16 in a late year (1 in 10), the latest of the six stations. Down near the river, Taylorsport reads 9°F colder. On the plateau flats, plant apples and save the slopes for peaches, plums and apricots.

Spring frost and bloom in the Ohio River Valley

The spring layer runs the same drainage at full strength. The best bloom readings here are on the river hills 240 to 380 feet above their floors, like Mount Adams, Fort Thomas and Kenton Hills, 7°F to 8°F warmer than downtown; flat ground up high, like Hyde Park or Hebron, doesn't get that edge. Kentucky's peach guide (UK's HO-57) says a good site runs about 2°F to 4°F warmer than nearby low ground, most of all in spring. Open blossoms of nearly every tree fruit start dying near 28°F, and the Weather Service's Wilmington office notes that 36°F at 5 feet can mean 32°F at the ground.

The 1991 to 2020 frost dates in NOAA station records don't follow height in any simple way:

• Lunken Field station, 475 feet on the Little Miami bottom 3 miles east of downtown: last 32°F April 12 (May 8 in a late year, 1 in 10), first fall 32°F October 23, 193 frost free days.
• Fernbank station, 500 feet by the Ohio (18 years): April 12, 192 days. Fairfield station, 575 feet: April 11, 192 days.
• Cheviot station, 891 feet on the West Side upland: April 14, 187 days.
• Airport station, 861 feet on the Boone County plateau: April 22 (May 16 in a late year), first fall October 22, 178 days.
• Butler County Regional Airport station at Hamilton, 606 feet: April 24 (May 10 in a late year), first fall October 17, 175 days.

The Wilmington office lists May 25 as Cincinnati's latest 32°F on record. In April 2007, after days near 80°F pushed bloom ahead, the University of Kentucky's farm in Lexington logged five straight nights as cold as 22°F in a windy freeze stretching from Michigan to Atlanta, and Kentucky's apple and peach losses were the worst since 1955. No hillside saves you on a windy night like that; site works on still, clear nights.

So site first, "the single most important method of frost protection," as the FAO puts it. Put apricots, peaches and sweet cherries highest, on a slope with lower ground below; UK's peach guide favors east, southeast and northeast slopes and says south slopes bloom early into more frost. Keep pears off frosty low ground. The bottoms are for apples, haskap and bush fruit. You don't need every flower: only about 15 percent of apple blossoms need to set (the University of Minnesota's number), and haskap flowers take 19°F wide open. Unless the fruit is clustered, like cherries and grapes, most fruit can lose half its blossoms and the frost just does your thinning. Through bloom, mow under 2 inches, don't till, and water a day or two before a frost night.

What the weather records say

Cincinnati's all-time low is −25°F, at the airport station on January 18, 1977, and the Fernbank and Milford stations hit −25°F in the same cold snap. By January 20 the Ohio was frozen shore to shore and people walked across. The Fairfield station, the longest record here at 103 years, holds −23°F from January 20, 1994, and Lunken −22°F from January 19, 1994. Since 1995 the coldest readings are −21°F at Fairfield and −20°F at the Hamilton airport station (February 24, 2015). Our planning lows at the stations sit 1°F to 8°F colder than anything recorded since 1995 (Lunken −17°F against −16°F, Cheviot −15°F against −9°F, Fernbank, whose record stops in 2009, −14°F against −6°F).

OSU Extension's Joe Boggs says USDA's 2023 map moved most of the area from zone 6a to 6b. NOAA station records show the worst night in about 30 winters runs a median 13°F below a station's average winter low; at the airport the average winter low since 1995 is −2°F and its own 30-year number −14°F.

What you can grow here

Most of our list clears winter anywhere on this map; only the fig, and around Hamilton the −20°F group, are in question. So pick by site and bloom.

The hills, the basin and the Kentucky ridges, −14°F or warmer

Downtown and the hills, and most of Northern Kentucky. Everything but the fig clears with 6°F or more to spare. Where spring reads warm, plant Contender (−30°F) and Redstar (−25°F) peaches, Flavortop (−20°F) and Hardired (−25°F) nectarines, Tomcot and Harlayne (−30°F) apricots, Bing (−20°F) and Stella (−25°F) sweet cherries, Santa Rosa plum (−20°F), Montana Trial Persimmon and SnowCzar almond (−25°F). Chicago Hardy Fig (−10°F) is worth a try only in the warmest spots, tight against a south or west wall.

Most of the suburbs and the valley floors, −15°F to −19°F

The Mill Creek and Little Miami valleys, Blue Ash, Mason, Lebanon, Harrison and the Ohio bottoms. Everything but the fig clears, the −20°F group with 1°F to 5°F to spare. Much of this ground reads 4°F to 8°F colder than downtown at bloom, so lead with apples: Liberty and Enterprise (−35°F), Arkansas Black (−40°F), Stayman Winesap (−30°F). Put Seckel and Bartlett (−35°F) pears and Superior plum (−35°F) up the slope (Toka, −45°F, is a good pollenizer for Superior). Montana Trial Pawpaw (−30°F) and Trader mulberry (−40°F), the hardiest mulberry we know of, clear with room. On the lowest ground, honeyberry (−50°F), Red Lake currant (−40°F) and American Elderberry (−50°F) shrug off a frosty bloom night. Peaches go on benches like Beckett Ridge, Tylersville and Indian Hill.

Hamilton, Fairfield and the Great Miami floor, −20°F to −23°F

Hamilton, Fairfield, Ross, New Miami, Millville and Olde West Chester. Everything rated −25°F or colder clears; the −20°F group (Bing, Santa Rosa, Flavortop and the rest) is only worth a try on the floor, and fits on the slopes above at about −18°F. Bloom nights read 2°F to 11°F colder than downtown, so plant Cortland (−40°F), Wolf River (−50°F) and Northern Spy (−30°F) apples, Kerr applecrab (−50°F), Evans Bali tart cherry (−45°F), Consort black currant (−50°F) and Nova raspberry (−50°F), with Luscious pear (−40°F) and the stone fruit on your highest ground. This is zone 4b; in zone 4 and colder we taper water from mid-August so trees harden off.

Roots, soil and the local problems

Roots are the weak link, and root injury comes mainly in snowless winters with dry soil, so mulch and don't let the soil go into winter dry. Butler County's highest uplands are heavy clay grading to sandy loam downhill, with dark river deposits in the valleys. UK's peach guide wants at least 3 feet of well drained soil at pH 6.0 to 6.5, on raised ridges where drainage is marginal. Test yours: dig 2 feet, fill it, let it drain, refill; under 10 hours is well drained. Wet springs and summers drive fungal disease here, and UK names peach tree borer the most destructive peach pest. Plant two apples that bloom together; our pollination maps show which overlap.

Fruit history here

Longworth planted Alexander and Isabella grapes in the Ohio River Valley in 1823 and Ohio's first Catawba in 1825. By around 1850 there were about 900 acres in some 300 vineyards within 20 miles of the city, and by 1860 Ohio led the nation in wine, with Cincinnati the most important city in the trade. Powdery mildew and black rot, Civil War labor shortages and Longworth's death ended it, and by the 1870s the grapes had moved to Lake Erie. Today Irons Fruit Farm and Hidden Valley Orchards in Lebanon open for apple picking, and McGlasson Farms on River Road in Hebron is a sixth-generation fruit and vegetable farm.

Questions people ask

What growing zone is Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky in?

Downtown Cincinnati plans for −13°F, MFTC zone 5b, with a typical winter of 3°F. Northern Kentucky's hills and uplands are 5b too, most Ohio suburbs 5a, and Hamilton and Fairfield 4b. OSU Extension's Joe Boggs says USDA's 2023 map moved most of the area from 6a to 6b. USDA's zone is based on an average winter, ours on the bad night we plan for.

When is the last frost in Cincinnati?

NOAA station records for 1991 to 2020 put the median last 32°F at April 12 at the Lunken Field station, 3 miles east of downtown, and May 8 in a late year (1 in 10). The airport station on the Boone County plateau runs to April 22, and the Butler County Regional Airport station at Hamilton to April 24.

Can you grow peaches in Cincinnati?

Yes. Every peach we sell is rated −25°F or colder, and the coldest named place on the map plans for −23°F, so winter isn't the problem. Bloom is. Plant them high on a slope that drains, like Fort Thomas, Mount Adams or the Fort Mitchell hills, where the map reads 6°F to 7°F warmer than downtown at bloom.

Can you grow figs in Cincinnati?

It's worth a try in the right spot. Chicago Hardy Fig has come through −10°F, and the warmest ground here plans for −11°F to −13°F, so give it a south or west wall on a hill like Mount Adams or Fort Thomas, with the roots mulched. Around Hamilton, at −21°F to −23°F, it's well past what it has come through.

Where are the frost pockets around Cincinnati?

The river and creek bottoms. On a still bloom night Constance, on the Kentucky bank at the Anderson Ferry, and South Fairmount read 12°F colder than downtown, Millville in Butler County 11°F colder, and Taylorsport, Melbourne and Addyston 9°F colder. The hills above read warm: the crown of Mount Adams 10°F warmer, Crestview and Kenton Hills in Kentucky 8°F warmer.

Is Lunken colder than CVG?

Usually not. Over 69 years with both on file, the airport station on the Boone County plateau has run a median 3°F colder than Lunken on the year's coldest night, and its median last spring freeze comes ten days later. Since 1995, though, Lunken's coldest (−16°F) has been colder than the airport's (−12°F), and the map plans for −17°F at Lunken and −14°F at the airport.

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.