Fruit Trees for DeKalb, Sycamore, Rochelle, Malta and Shabbona, Illinois

On January 26, 2022, the Rochelle airport sensor read −23°F, the coldest number on NBC Chicago's list for the whole Chicago area that day. Malta, about 11 miles east, read −12°F. That's 11°F across country most people would call flat, and it's why the ground matters when you pick fruit trees for DeKalb, Sycamore, Rochelle, Malta and Shabbona. The map covers most of DeKalb County, southeast Ogle County around Rochelle and northeast Lee County through Paw Paw; Genoa sits just past the north edge.

Most of what we sell clears winter on most of this ground, so in northern Illinois the frost at bloom deserves as much thought as the winter low. 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 number our cold hardiness calculator uses, adjusted for the lay of the land. It's a safe number to plan on, not the record and not a promise of how often that cold comes. The MFTC zone puts it in half zones, and the typical winter is an average year's coldest night, the kind of number USDA zones are built on. The spring layer shows how much warmer or colder a spot runs than DeKalb on a still, clear night at bloom.

DeKalb, our reference, plans for −26°F, MFTC zone 4a, with a typical winter of −13°F. The middle of the map's growing ground plans for −28°F, and half of it falls between −30°F and −27°F. Cortland is the warmest named place at −24°F (zone 4b), and the low ground west of Rochelle is the coldest, with Childers Acres at −33°F (zone 3b). Everything we sell rated −35°F or colder clears every named place on the map, and everything rated −30°F clears all the zone 4a ground, which is most of it.

Why the map looks the way it does

This is high, gently rolling ground where four drainages start. The South Branch of the Kishwaukee rises near Shabbona and runs north through DeKalb to Genoa. The Kyte rises about 7 miles north of Rochelle, runs south through town and swings northwest to the Rock, and Indian Creek and Somonauk Creek head for the Fox. Lee sits where four watersheds meet, and Creston was named for what people took to be the highest ground between Chicago and the Mississippi. The Illinois State Geological Survey says the streams along the east edge haven't cut well-defined valleys, and most named places here sit only 10 to 130 feet above their local floor.

Country like that makes its own cold. On a clear, calm night the fields radiate heat to the sky, the air on them chills, and with so little slope to carry it off it settles into the swales, ditched bottoms and headwater flats. Near where the Kyte rises the map reads 3°F colder than DeKalb at bloom, and at the Somonauk Creek spring north of Waterman, 4°F colder. Researchers in Oklahoma measured a 20°F difference across a hillside only about 40 feet tall.

The bigger pattern runs east to west. DeKalb, Cortland and Malta sit high, at roughly 870 to 915 feet, and Rochelle's town point sits at 820 feet on the Kyte, with lower ground west of it. Rochelle's NOAA station ran a median 3°F colder than DeKalb's on the year's coldest night over 29 years, and in the February 2014 cold snap it read −22°F to DeKalb's −13°F. In the 2008-09 winter the Rochelle airport, at 781 feet, bottomed out at −37°F, and DeKalb's, at 914 feet, at −21°F. We haven't found a published explanation for why Rochelle so often reads coldest around Chicago, but the map and the physics agree: on a still night the cold made on the higher ground spreads onto the lower ground, and the open fields down there make plenty of their own.

Not every cold snap sorts the ground. In January 1994 the Paw Paw, DeKalb, Rochelle and Compton stations all read −24°F. Arctic air that comes in on a wind stays mixed, and the low spots pull away only once the wind drops under a clear sky. The planning lows lean on the nearest stations: Rochelle's old station and its airport carry 30-year numbers of −31°F and −36°F, and DeKalb's campus station and airport −26°F and −23°F. That −31°F is colder than anything the Rochelle station has recorded since 1995: −28°F in the 2008-09 winter, and −30°F in the January 2019 cold snap.

Towns hold heat on still nights, and the map gives built-up ground a little extra; Rochelle's town point plans for −29°F while the floor within 3 miles runs −32°F. There's no big water. Shabbona Lake, a 1975 reservoir of about 319 acres, freezes over for ice fishing, so it does nothing for the winter low. Wet, peaty low ground (peat runs up to 20 feet thick in depressions near Maple Park) runs frosty because it's low, grassy and organic, while the DeKalb mounds north of Sycamore, flat-topped hills built of 7 to 23 feet of glacial lake silt and capped with sand and gravel, stand above the flats, where the cold can drain off them.

DeKalb, NIU and Cortland

DeKalb sits high, at about 880 feet, with the South Branch of the Kishwaukee running north through town. It plans for −26°F, MFTC zone 4a, typical winter −13°F, and it's an even town: within 3 miles the floor runs −26°F, the warmest tenth of the ground −24°F and the coldest tenth −27°F. NOAA's station has sat on the NIU campus, west of Annie Glidden Road, since 1966. The subdivisions, from The Knolls south of Lincoln Highway and the Rivermist subdivisions off Rich Road to Heritage Ridge off Fairview and 1st and Summit Enclave out by Bethany Road, sit inside or close to that spread, with the river's floodplain as the low ground. What separates one lot from the next is the spring reading.

Cortland, just east of DeKalb, is the warmest named place on the map: −24°F, MFTC zone 4b, typical winter −11°F, about even with DeKalb at bloom. It sits at 902 feet near DeKalb's airport, whose sensor has the warmest 30-year number of any station here, and the Somonauk Road subdivisions (Chestnut Grove, Heatherfield, Neucort Lakes, Richland Trails) are in that stretch too.

In DeKalb, Honeycrisp (−45°F), Zestar! (−40°F), Luscious pear (−40°F), Superior plum (−35°F) with Toka (−45°F), a good pollenizer for Superior, and Lapins and Gold, the hardiest sweet cherries we've found (−35°F), all have room. Contender and Blushingstar peaches (−30°F) clear by 4°F. 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. In Cortland the −25°F group fits (Redstar peach, Stella sweet cherry, SnowCzar almond, Montana Trial Persimmon); in DeKalb it's worth a try near a south or west wall. Peaches and cherries bloom early, so give them the highest spot on the lot.

Sycamore, the Kishwaukee and the north edge toward Genoa

Sycamore, the county seat, is named for the sycamore, and Kishwaukee is Potawatomi for "river of the sycamore." The town point sits 40 feet above its floor and plans for −26°F, MFTC zone 4a, typical winter −12°F. It reads 2°F warmer than DeKalb at bloom, tied with Rochelle for the best spring reading of the bigger towns. NOAA's old Sycamore station, which ran from 1897 to 1964, never recorded colder than −26°F. The subdivisions ring the historic district along Main and Somonauk streets, from Heron Creek and North Grove Crossings off Plank Road to River Edge and Old Mill Park south of Mt. Hunger Road, Electric Park south of Coltonville Road and Foxpointe and Windfield Meadows along Peace Road.

That bloom reading makes Sycamore good apricot and cherry ground: Westcot (−45°F), Sungold (−40°F) and Hardy Iowa (−35°F) apricots, White Gold sweet cherry (−35°F) and Italian plum (−35°F). Our pollination maps show what pollenizes what.

The north edge is flatter and frostier. Five Points, 10 feet above its floor, plans for −27°F and reads 3°F colder than DeKalb at bloom; Wilkinson plans for −25°F (zone 4b) and reads 2°F colder, Clare −27°F and 2°F colder, Esmond −28°F and 1°F colder. Genoa sits a few miles north of the edge on the Kishwaukee, with Kingston and Kirkland, and the map doesn't reach them. Those four spots are the nearest numbers along the north edge, so go by the one whose ground looks most like yours, high and open or low and flat. North of Esmond and White Rock, the Rockford and Rock River map picks up.

Malta, Creston and the high flats

Malta sits on the Lincoln Highway west of DeKalb at 914 feet, on ground so flat the map puts the slope under 1 percent. In winter that high, open ground does well (−25°F, MFTC zone 4b, typical winter −11°F), but at bloom it reads 2°F colder than DeKalb, since the cold made on a flat that big has nowhere to go. Jonamac Orchard near Malta has fought bloom frost for years. Frost took about three quarters of its apples in 2004 and again in 2005, and in 2012, after March days near 80°F pushed the trees into full bloom, a freeze killed over half the crop. Jonamac put up its first frost fan that year, and in 2026 the fans held most of the damage to frost rings.

Afton Center, south of DeKalb on another flat, plans for −25°F but reads 3°F colder at bloom; Elva, a mile north on a 3 percent slope, reads only 1°F colder. Creston, at 902 feet about halfway to Rochelle, plans for −28°F and reads about even. On the flats, choose by bloom. Apples are the safe bet, since only about 15 percent of their blossoms need to set: Spartan (−40°F) and Honeycrisp, both Jonamac apples, and Haralson (−45°F). Kerr and Trailman applecrabs (−50°F and −55°F) are our pick if you only plant one tree, and honeyberry (−50°F) fits too, since open haskap flowers take 19°F. Keep apricots, peaches and pears on a rise.

Rochelle, Hillcrest and the low ground west of town

Rochelle, the Hub City, where the Union Pacific and BNSF mainlines cross, sits on the Kyte, below the high ground around DeKalb and Malta. The town point, at 820 feet and 50 feet above its floor, plans for −29°F, MFTC zone 4a, typical winter −13°F, and reads 2°F warmer than DeKalb at bloom, which beats the ground around it: within 3 miles the floor runs −32°F and the coldest tenth −33°F. Hillcrest, just north, plans for −29°F and reads 1°F colder at bloom. NOAA's Rochelle station sat at 775 feet, 45 feet below the town point, and the airport south of town at 781 feet.

West and southwest of town the ground drops below 800 feet in places, the coldest country on the map. Childers Acres, 10 feet above its floor, plans for −33°F, MFTC zone 3b, typical winter −16°F, the coldest named place on the map. Flagg plans for −32°F; Crestwood Acres, Kyte Side Estates, Skare Estates, Frahms Country Acres, Hickory Ridge and Prairieview Estates −31°F; Ramsey Acres and Flagg Center −30°F. At bloom they split hard. Crestwood Acres, the one spot there the map marks as river bottom, reads 5°F colder than DeKalb, the coldest spring reading of any named place on the map, while Kyte Side Estates, 0.2 mile away and 17 feet higher, reads even with DeKalb. North of town, White Rock is MFTC zone 3b and reads 3°F colder at bloom, while Paynes Point, 120 feet above its floor in the northwest corner, plans for −28°F and reads 2°F warmer.

Rochelle's town lots take the zone 4a list: Siberian C peach (−35°F), the hardiest peach we've found, and Hardy Iowa apricot, with Contender and Goldrich apricot (−30°F) on the warmest lots. West of town, stick to the zone 3b list below: Frostbite apple (−45°F), Kerr applecrab, Evans Bali tart cherry (−45°F), honeyberry and currants, with plums and pears only on lots that read even at bloom. Rochelle canned asparagus for Del Monte after the war, and our asparagus (−40°F) clears every spot on the map.

Steward, Ashton, Lee and the Lee County line

Steward, at 822 feet on ground the map calls nearly dead level, plans for −30°F, MFTC zone 3b, typical winter −14°F, and reads 2°F colder than DeKalb at bloom. The bench ground within 3 miles plans for −28°F, so a little rise pays. Steward's first house went up in 1847 at a spot called Plum Thicket. Lee, 5 miles southeast at 940 feet on the DeKalb and Lee county line, plans for −27°F and reads 1°F colder: 118 feet higher than Steward and 3°F milder. Ashton, on a toe slope at 825 feet, plans for −29°F and reads about even. Inlet, river bottom in the southwest corner, plans for −31°F (zone 3b) and reads 3°F colder. Around Steward and Inlet, plant Wealthy and Wolf River apples, Chestnut applecrab, Romeo and Juliet bush cherries and aronia, all rated −50°F.

Shabbona, Waterman and Hinckley

Shabbona, called Cornton until 1872 and named for the Potawatomi chief, sits at 895 feet near where the Kishwaukee's South Branch rises. It plans for −27°F, MFTC zone 4a, typical winter −12°F, and reads 2°F colder than DeKalb at bloom. Shabbona Grove, 60 feet above its floor near where Indian Creek rises, plans for −28°F but reads 1°F warmer, and the named spots between the two (Canvasback Cove, Merganser Circle, Teal Bay), on 4 to 6 percent slopes, read 1°F to 3°F warmer; the cold slides off a slope like that. Waterman plans for −27°F and reads about even. Hinckley plans for −27°F and reads 1°F colder, and Franks, the lowest named place on the map at 724 feet, plans for −29°F and reads 3°F colder. Past the east edge at Maple Park, the Chicago western suburbs and Fox Valley map takes over. Plant Mount Royal plum (−45°F) and Sungold apricot on the Shabbona Grove slopes, and Boyne raspberry (−50°F) and apples anywhere.

Paw Paw, Compton, West Brooklyn and the south hills

The south end has the highest named places on the map. Compton, at 978 feet the highest named place, plans for −27°F and reads about even with DeKalb at bloom; West Brooklyn, 130 feet above its floor, −28°F and about even; Paw Paw, 90 feet up at 942 feet, −27°F and 2°F warmer. The village was named for a grove of pawpaw trees at the edge of a 2,000 acre forest. This is where the thermal belt shows. East Paw Paw, on a bench 120 feet above its floor, reads 3°F warmer than DeKalb at bloom, the warmest spring reading of any named place on the map, and The Burg, on a 5 percent slope, 3°F warmer too. Roxbury, on a flat 10 feet above its floor between them, reads 5°F colder and plans for −30°F (zone 3b). Roxbury and East Paw Paw are about 5 miles apart and 8°F apart on a still bloom night.

The winter numbers lean on the Paw Paw 2S station, about 50 feet below the village, which read −33°F in February 1996 in the same cold snap that took the Compton station to −24°F. Put the early bloomers on the benches: Westcot, Sungold and Hardy Iowa apricots, Siberian C, Contender, Veteran and Blushingstar peaches, and Gold and Lapins sweet cherries all clear Paw Paw's −27°F. And grow a pawpaw in Paw Paw: our Montana Trial Pawpaw has come through −30°F.

Spring frost and bloom around DeKalb and Rochelle

NOAA's 1991 to 2020 frost dates show how much a station's spot matters. At the DeKalb station, in town on the NIU campus, the median last 32°F is April 18 and the first in fall October 17, for 176 frost-free days, and in a late year (1 in 10) the last 32°F runs to May 11. At the Rochelle station, 45 feet below the town point, the last 32°F is April 30 and the first October 10, for 160 days, with a late year to May 17. The hard freezes quit about together (the last 28°F is April 11 at DeKalb and April 12 at Rochelle); it's the light frosts that hang on 12 days longer.

In 2026, an early spring, Illinois Extension had most northern Illinois apples at tight cluster to half inch green by mid April and some at bloom about a week later, with frosts into early May. Extension puts apple kill at 27°F (10 percent) and 21°F (90 percent) at tight cluster, and about 28°F and 25°F at bloom, and NC State's fruit people say 3°F to 4°F can be the difference between no crop and a full one.

Site comes first; the FAO's frost protection manual calls it the single most important method of frost protection. Apricots, peaches, plums and sweet cherries go on ground that reads warm at bloom (the Paw Paw benches, Paynes Point, Sycamore, Rochelle's town lots, the Shabbona Grove slopes), and apples, haskap and bush fruit on the flats. Illinois Extension says a frost fan covers about 10 to 13 acres and buys about 3°F to 5°F on a calm, clear night, and little in a wind. In a backyard, frost cloth of 0.5, 0.9 and 1.5 ounces per square yard gains about 4°F, 6°F and 8°F. Through bloom, mow under 2 inches, don't till, and water a day or two before a frost.

What the weather records say

The coldest reading in NOAA station records here is −33°F, at Rochelle (January 19, 1985) and Paw Paw 2S (February 3 and 4, 1996), matched by the Aurora airport just off the east edge in 2009. DeKalb's coldest is −27°F (January 20, 1985) and Shabbona 5 NNE's −30°F (January 31, 2019); Illinois set its state record, −38°F, that same year. USDA's zones are built on the average winter's coldest night, which runs −14°F at DeKalb's station and −16°F at Rochelle's. Ours plan for the bad night, and NOAA station records show the worst night in about 30 winters runs a median 13°F below a station's average winter low, just about the gap between DeKalb's −14°F and its −27°F. The state climatologist, Trent Ford, says warmer winters are pushing spring earlier and making the last freeze harder to predict; an earlier spring pulls bloom into weeks that still freeze, the way March 2012 did at Jonamac.

What you can grow here

DeKalb, Sycamore, Cortland and Malta: −24°F to −26°F

Room to spare for most of the list. Apples: Honeycrisp, Zestar!, Cortland (−40°F), Liberty (−35°F), Northern Spy (−30°F). Pears, off the low corners: Luscious, Bartlett (−35°F), Harrow Sweet (−30°F). Plums: Superior with Toka, Italian, Stanley (−30°F). Cherries: Lapins, Gold, Montmorency tart (−35°F). Apricots and peaches where the spring reading is good: Goldrich, Contender, Blushingstar. Where the map plans −25°F or warmer (Cortland, Malta, Wilkinson), the −25°F group clears winter, Purvis Hardy English Walnut included; in DeKalb, Sycamore and Afton Center it's worth a try on the best lot. Grapes: Marquette (−35°F), Brianna (−40°F).

The rest of MFTC zone 4a: −27°F to −30°F

Rochelle's town lots, Creston, Lee, Shabbona, Waterman, Hinckley, Ashton, Paw Paw, Compton and West Brooklyn. Everything rated −30°F or colder clears. Apples: Haralson, Spartan, Snowsweet (−40°F), Wealthy. Pears: Flemish Beauty (−40°F), Ure (−45°F). Plums: Mount Royal, Superior with Toka. Cherries: Evans Bali, Meteor (−40°F), White Gold. Apricots: Westcot, Sungold, Hardy Iowa. Peaches: Siberian C, Contender, Veteran.

MFTC zone 3b, the coldest ground: −30°F to −33°F

The low ground west of Rochelle, Steward, White Rock, Roxbury and Inlet. Stick to things rated −35°F or colder: Frostbite, Norland (−50°F), Wolf River and Haralson apples; Kerr, Chestnut, Centennial (−50°F) and Trailman applecrabs (Ed Schultz saw zero winter injury on Centennial after a winter that hit −47°F); Summercrisp pear (−45°F) on lots that read even at bloom. Bush fruit: honeyberry, Montana Black Currant (−50°F), Red Lake currant (−40°F), which fruited well in 2026 after its flower buds saw about 22°F, and Pixwell gooseberry (−40°F). Things rated −30°F are worth a try on the higher lots here, but keep the early bloomers out of the bottoms.

Roots are the weak link. At Ed Schultz's farm in Gallatin Gateway, Montana, Bud 118 apple rootstock has seen near −50°F with no rootstock damage, under snow, and that's the catch on open fields that lose their snow to the wind. Hold snow with a windbreak about 30 to 40 percent dense, mulch the root zone, and don't let the soil go into winter dust dry. We taper water from mid-August in zone 4 and colder so trees harden off, and that's this whole map.

Plant on a rise with somewhere for the cold to go, not on the dead flat or in the swale. Montana State recommends an uphill site on a 4 to 8 percent grade; that's scarce here, so use what you've got, even 20 feet. Give trees at least 6 hours of direct sun, and test drainage: dig 2 feet, fill the hole, let it drain, refill it, and under 10 hours is well drained. Illinois Extension lists apple scab, plum curculio, fire blight, codling moth and apple maggot in northern Illinois orchards, plus peach leaf curl. Voles are getting worse, so mow tight, keep a 2-foot bare strip around each trunk, and put guards on from 2 to 3 inches below the ground to 18 to 24 inches above it before the snow.

Questions people ask

What growing zone is DeKalb, Illinois?

DeKalb plans for −26°F, MFTC zone 4a, typical winter −13°F, and Cortland plans for −24°F, zone 4b. USDA's zones are built on the average winter's coldest night (−14°F at NOAA's DeKalb station), ours on the bad night we plan for, so ours read a full zone or more colder than the zone 5 you'll see on nursery pages.

Why is Rochelle so cold?

We haven't found a published explanation, but Rochelle sits lower than the high ground around DeKalb and Malta (its airport at 781 feet, DeKalb's at 914), and on a calm, clear night the cold ends up on low ground. Rochelle's NOAA station ran a median 3°F colder than DeKalb's on the year's coldest night, and the airport read −23°F on January 26, 2022, when Malta read −12°F. The map plans for −29°F in town and −31°F to −33°F on the low ground west of it.

When is the last frost in DeKalb?

At NOAA's DeKalb station on the NIU campus, the 1991 to 2020 median last 32°F is April 18, and in a late year (1 in 10) May 11, with 176 frost-free days. Lower ground runs later: the Rochelle station, at 775 feet, has a median last 32°F of April 30 and 160 frost-free days.

Can you grow peaches in DeKalb County?

Yes. Siberian C (−35°F) clears every named place on this map, and Contender, Veteran and Blushingstar (−30°F) clear all the MFTC zone 4a ground, including DeKalb and Sycamore (−26°F). Bloom is the harder part, so plant them where the spring layer reads warm, like Sycamore's town lots, and keep them off the flats around Malta and Afton Center.

Do pawpaws grow in northern Illinois?

The village of Paw Paw, in Lee County, was named for a grove of pawpaw trees at the edge of a 2,000 acre forest. Our Montana Trial Pawpaw has come through −30°F, which clears the planning low at Paw Paw (−27°F), DeKalb (−26°F) and all the MFTC zone 4a ground on this map.

When do apple trees bloom in northern Illinois?

In 2026, an early year, Illinois Extension had most apples at tight cluster to half inch green by mid April and some at bloom about a week later, with frosts into early May. Open blossoms start dying near 28°F, but only about 15 percent need to set for a crop.

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.