Fruit Trees for Flagstaff, Doney Park, Kachina Village, Munds Park and Fort Valley, Arizona

On January 12, 1963, the long-running Fort Valley station, out in the big meadow at the foot of the San Francisco Peaks, read −37°F. The Flagstaff airport bottomed out at −20°F in the same cold snap, and Sedona, about 2,900 ft below Fort Valley, read 9°F. That spread is what fruit trees for Flagstaff, Doney Park, Kachina Village, Munds Park and Fort Valley live with, and spring is the other half: the Fort Valley station's median last frost is June 25.

This map covers Northern Arizona's high country around Flagstaff in Coconino County, from Fort Valley and Bellemont to Doney Park and Winona, south past Mormon Lake and Munds Park, and down Oak Creek Canyon off the Mogollon Rim to Sedona. 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

Every number on the map is a 30-year planning low, the same number our cold hardiness calculator gives, built from NOAA station records since the 1995-96 winter and adjusted for the lay of the land. It's a safe number to plan around, not the record. You also get the MFTC zone (that number in half zones), the typical winter (an average year's coldest night) and a spring layer: how much warmer or colder a spot runs than downtown Flagstaff on a still, clear night at bloom.

Downtown Flagstaff plans for −19°F (MFTC 5a) with a typical winter of −8°F, and the middle of the growing ground on the map plans for −16°F. The coldest twentieth, −23°F or colder, takes in the floor around Bellemont (−27°F), the Fort Valley meadow (−26°F) and the Mormon Lake shore. The warmest twentieth, +7°F or better, is all down in Oak Creek Canyon and Sedona, where Uptown plans for +9°F (7b). On the plateau the warmest named places are on the east side, where Lowell's Anderson Mesa Station plans for −13°F and Doney Park, Christmas Tree Estates and Smokerise Valley −14°F (5b).

Why the map looks the way it does

Start with the big drop. Flagstaff sits at about 7,000 ft on the Colorado Plateau, and the south end of the map falls off the Mogollon Rim into Oak Creek Canyon, where the creek runs down to about 4,300 ft just north of Sedona. Over 48 years of NOAA station records, the Flagstaff airport's coldest night of the year has run a median 23°F colder than Sedona's.

Up on the plateau the coldest ground is the parks, the open meadows ringed by ponderosa pine. Fort Valley is a big bowl-shaped meadow at the southwest foot of the Peaks, and the Arboretum sits in the meadows off Woody Mountain Road. Their stations share the coldest reading on the map, −37°F, against −30°F at the airport. On a clear, calm night open ground loses its heat straight to the sky, cold air slides in off the slopes, and a flat floor gives it nowhere to go. In the February 1985 cold snap the Flagstaff 4 SW station at the Arboretum read −37°F, Fort Valley −32°F and the airport −23°F. The Forest Service put its first research station in Fort Valley in 1908 to work out why ponderosa pine wouldn't regenerate in the park.

The cold also travels. The Rio de Flag heads at Leroux Springs, about a mile up Snowbowl Road, follows US 180 south past the Cheshire Wetlands into downtown, then crosses I-40 at Willow Bend and runs northeast through Foxglenn Park into Picture Canyon. It only flows after rain or snowmelt, but cold air takes the same road on a still night. The city's coldest neighborhoods sit up that corridor, closest to Fort Valley: Cheshire, Lynwood and Valley Crest plan for −21°F (4b).

Rims and slopes run warm, and it doesn't take much height. The Walnut Canyon rim station, about 300 ft lower than the airport, hasn't gone below −11°F in 18 years on file; in the January 2011 cold snap it bottomed out at −11°F to the airport's −19°F and Bellemont's −30°F. That fits ground that can shed its cold over the edge into a canyon. The Mormon Mountain station, only 100 ft higher than the Mormon Lake station, has a 30-year number of −8°F to the lake station's −25°F. Even the Snowslide Canyon station, at 9,730 ft, gets a 100-day frost-free season to Fort Valley's 68. On still nights the cold settles into the parks and basins and the air above runs warmer: the thermal belt.

The lakes don't help. Mormon Lake averages about 10 ft deep, and winter fishing reports have described Upper Lake Mary and Ashurst Lake as likely mostly to completely iced over. Frozen water doesn't warm its shore, and on the map the low, open ground around the lakes reads cold. The Mormon Lake village plans for −23°F, while the Dairy Springs cabins, on a hillside about 3 miles north of the village, plan for −14°F.

Across town the winter number moves only a few degrees, because it leans on the station records, but the spring layer shows the lay of the land at full strength. On a still bloom night Ponderosa Trails reads 5°F colder than downtown, the coldest spring reading of any named place on the map, and Flagstaff Mesa reads 14°F warmer. On windy or cloudy nights that pattern flattens out.

Downtown Flagstaff, the Townsite and the mesas

Downtown sits on the Rio de Flag floor at about 6,900 ft and plans for −19°F (5a). Within 3 miles the floor runs −19°F and the benches −18°F, so the core of town is even in winter: the Townsite plans for −19°F, Brannon Addition and Sawmill Place −18°F. Coconino Estates, on the floor north of downtown, plans for −19°F and reads 2°F colder on a bloom night.

The mesas change the spring numbers. McMillan Mesa, the high ground with Buffalo Park that splits East Flagstaff from West Flagstaff and downtown, sits 230 ft up, plans for −17°F and reads 10°F warmer than downtown on a bloom night. West of downtown, Flagstaff Mesa, 270 ft up on a steep slope, plans for −17°F and reads 14°F warmer, and West Ridge 10°F.

At −19°F winter clears nearly everything we sell, and the bloom night decides the crop. Put the apricots, sweet cherries and plums on the mesa edges and on slopes facing east (they warm fast on a frosty morning) or north (it holds bloom back): Westcot apricot, Rainier cherry, Toka and Superior plums (Toka is a good pollenizer for Superior; the pollination maps show more). Floor lots like the Townsite are apple ground. Careful with south walls: University of Arizona Extension notes masonry and bare ground can push buds out early, into frost season.

Cheshire, Lynwood and the northwest side

Up US 180 toward the Peaks, at 7,060 to 7,157 ft, the northwest side is the coldest part of the city in winter. Cheshire, only 20 ft above the floor, plans for −21°F (4b) and reads 3°F colder than downtown on a bloom night. Valley Crest plans for −21°F and Coyote Springs, in a draw, −20°F (both 4b). Lynwood, right beside Cheshire on a hillside 70 ft up, plans for the same −21°F but reads 8°F warmer than downtown in spring, about 10°F warmer than Cheshire. At −21°F, plan on varieties rated −25°F or colder; −20°F ones like Bing cherry are only worth a try. Put Lapins and Gold, the hardiest sweet cherries we've found, on the Lynwood slopes, and keep Cheshire's floor for apples like Wealthy and for Montana Black Currant.

East Flagstaff and the Mount Elden foothills

Mount Elden, a 9,301 ft lava dome, gives East Flagstaff its slopes. The low ground (Sunnyside, East Flagstaff, Fox Glenn and Forest Springs, all −18°F) runs out toward Picture Canyon. Upper Greenlaw, a bench 140 ft up, plans for −17°F and reads 6°F warmer than downtown in spring, and Swiss Manor, 220 ft up, −16°F and 10°F warmer.

Toward Country Club the slopes get better; within 3 miles the floor plans for −18°F and the benches −14°F. Country Club Estates and Forest Ridge plan for −15°F and read 8°F and 9°F warmer in spring, and Amberwood, 170 ft up, plans for −15°F and reads 11°F warmer. The exception is Lakeside Acres, a low spot that plans for −17°F but reads 4°F colder than downtown in spring, while Forest Ridge, about half a mile off, reads 9°F warmer: 13°F apart on the night that matters. At the north end, Christmas Tree Estates (260 ft up below Sheep Hill), Smokerise Valley and the Flagstaff Industrial Park plan for −14°F (5b), the warmest winter numbers of any named place in the city.

These slopes are the city's best stone fruit ground: Sungold and Tomcot apricots, Stella cherry, Kahinta and Italian plums, Contender and Blushingstar peaches, Ure and Summercrisp pears. Leave low spots like Lakeside Acres to apples and bush fruit.

Doney Park, Timberline-Fernwood and out toward Winona

Doney Park spreads northeast of town off US 89, mostly on lots of an acre or more. The map's Doney Park point, on a bench 180 ft above the floor, plans for −14°F (5b) with a typical winter of −3°F and reads 6°F warmer than downtown in spring. Within 3 miles the ground runs −13°F to −16°F. NWS Flagstaff still lists it among the Rim country's cold areas.

North toward Sunset Crater it gets colder. Timberline-Fernwood, on the floor about 11 miles northeast of Flagstaff on US 89, plans for −17°F (5a), and the Sunset Crater station (6,980 ft) has a 30-year number of −21°F. This is cinder country (Sunset Crater's ash covered more than 810 square miles), so test drainage and water by drip. East toward Winona the land drops: Mountain View Ranches, on the floor, plans for −15°F and reads 1°F colder than downtown in spring, and Winona, about 13 miles east of town on I-40 and old Route 66, plans for −14°F (5b). Put the stone fruit on the Doney Park benches, and apples, Red Lake currants and Boyne raspberries on the floors.

Fort Valley, Bellemont and the west side parks

Fort Valley is the classic Flagstaff frost pocket: a large, open meadow ringed by ponderosa pine at the southwest base of the Peaks, first settled by Laura and William Murphy in 1881. The map's point sits right on the floor and plans for −26°F (4a) with a typical winter of −11°F, and it reads 3°F colder than downtown on a bloom night; the slopes around the meadow plan for −22°F. The station there has a median frost-free season of 68 days, from June 25 to September 7, and one year in ten the last spring frost comes as late as July 9.

Bellemont, about 11 miles west-northwest of Flagstaff on I-40 and billed as the highest settlement on historic Route 66, is the coldest town on the map at −27°F (4a), with the slopes around it at −23°F. The station at the NWS Flagstaff office there bottomed out at −24°F in the January 2013 cold snap to the airport's −9°F, and its frost-free season runs 79 days. Southwest of town, the Arboretum's station has the latest median last frost of any station on the map, June 28, while Flagstaff Ranch, on a slope 200 ft up, plans for −20°F and reads 8°F warmer than downtown in spring.

Kachina Village, Mountainaire and the south side

South of town, Kachina Village, a bedroom community at about 6,800 ft, plans for −19°F (5a); the map's point sits in a draw and reads 2°F colder than downtown on a bloom night. Mountainaire, which takes in the Kachina Hills and Mountainaire subdivisions, plans for −18°F, and Pine Del Estates, 10 ft above the floor, plans for −20°F and reads 3°F colder in spring. On the city's south side, Ponderosa Trails plans for −19°F with the coldest spring reading of any named place on the map, while Pinnacle Pines, on a slope 100 ft up, plans for −16°F and reads 7°F warmer. Pinnacle Pines can carry apricots and plums; Ponderosa Trails and Pine Del do better with apples, Hinnomaki Red gooseberries and currants.

Southeast, on Anderson Mesa above the Lake Mary country, the point at Lowell Observatory's Anderson Mesa Station, 390 ft up, plans for −13°F (5b) and reads 13°F warmer in spring. Down at Mormon Lake the station has a 30-year number of −25°F, a few degrees colder than its coldest reading on file, so the shore is for the hardiest apples and bush fruit.

Munds Park, Oak Creek Canyon and Sedona

Munds Park sits off I-17 about 21 miles south of Flagstaff at about 6,500 ft, just above Oak Creek Canyon. It's a few hundred feet lower than Flagstaff, but that buys it no warmth. The map's point, on a bench 140 ft up, plans for −18°F (5a) and reads 7°F warmer than downtown in spring, while the floor within 3 miles plans for −20°F. The Munds Park station (6,470 ft) hit −27°F in the December 1990 cold snap to the airport's −23°F, and its median last frost is June 13.

Below Munds Park the land falls off the Rim. Oak Creek Canyon runs about 12 miles and 800 to 2,000 ft deep. Indian Gardens, on the canyon floor at about 4,600 ft, plans for +6°F (7b), and the Oak Creek Canyon station (5,118 ft) has a 201-day frost-free season. Sedona and Red Rock Country, at the foot of the canyon, are milder still. Uptown plans for +9°F (7b) with a typical winter of +15°F, and West Sedona, on a slope 130 ft up, +11°F (8a). The Sedona station (4,430 ft, 1944 to 2009) bottomed out at 0°F in 1962 and 1968, and its coldest since 1995 was 14°F, warmer than the +11°F the map plans for there. Its median last frost is April 12, with a 209-day season. Down here everything we sell clears winter, Chicago Hardy Fig (−10°F) included, and bloom timing is the whole game.

Spring frost and bloom

Spring is where Flagstaff fruit lives or dies. University of Arizona Extension says Flagstaff often loses its fruit crop to late spring freezes while the Verde Valley rarely does. At the Flagstaff airport station, 5 miles south of town, the median last 32°F comes June 4 and the last 28°F May 24, one year in ten the last 32°F comes as late as June 21, and the frost-free season runs 108 days. The meadow stations run about three weeks later, and the Walnut Canyon rim station earlier, May 21, with 135 frost-free days.

Open blossoms of apple, pear, cherry, peach, apricot and plum all start dying at about 28°F, so with 28°F nights into late May at the airport and mid June in the parks, it's no surprise the crop misses so many years. But a tree doesn't need much: Minnesota's fruit people figure only about 15 percent of apple blossoms have to set, sweet cherries can lose half their flowers and still crop fully, and haskap flowers take 19°F wide open. In 2018 there was no late frost, and Flagstaff had a huge crop of apples, cherries, plums and pears. NWS forecasters noted that late bloomers like apples are the most likely to come through.

So site comes first, and that means the spring layer: apricots, plums, peaches and sweet cherries on the slopes and mesa edges that read 8°F to 14°F warmer than downtown, and apples, haskap and bush fruit in the hollows that read colder. Bob Purvis's rule fits: an east-facing slope warms quickly on a frosty morning, and a north slope holds early bloomers back. Don't let a hedge, a fence or a wall of pines across the slope dam the cold above your trees.

On a frost night at bloom, frost cloth of 0.5, 0.9 and 1.5 oz per square yard gains about 4°F, 6°F and 8°F by Alabama Extension's numbers. It won't do much in a windy freeze, and on those nights the warm slopes lose their edge too.

What the weather records say

Beyond the two −37°F meadow readings, NOAA station records give the Flagstaff airport station −30°F on January 22, 1937 and Bellemont −30°F on January 1, 2011. The December 23, 1990 outbreak shows the whole map at once: −36°F at the Arboretum station, −30°F at Fort Valley, −23°F at the airport, −14°F at Mormon Mountain and 11°F at Sedona. In the January 1971 cold snap that set Arizona's state record of −40°F at Hawley Lake in the White Mountains, Fort Valley hit −33°F and the airport −22°F.

USDA's zones are built on the average of each winter's coldest night. The airport's average yearly low across its record is −9°F and its record is 21°F colder, which is why we plan for the bad night instead.

Flagstaff averages about 90 to 97 inches of snow a year, and 35.9 inches fell on February 21, 2019. June is dry, drought has run since 1996, and the July and August monsoon brings about a third of the year's precipitation.

What you can grow here

Most of this map clears most of our list in winter, so on the plateau the real choices are about bloom nights and the short season. By microclimate:

Sedona and the lower Oak Creek Canyon, +6°F to +11°F (MFTC 7b to 8a)

Everything we sell clears this, so choose by taste and bloom timing: Bing cherry, Santa Rosa and Stanley plums, Redstar peach, Fantasia nectarine, Goldrich apricot, Arkansas Black apple and Montana Trial Persimmon. With the Sedona station's last 28°F around March 22, give the apricots and peaches a slope where the cold drains off, not the creek bottom.

The east side slopes, Doney Park and Winona, −13°F to −16°F (MFTC 5a and 5b)

Anything rated −20°F or colder fits, and on the slopes the spring layer is on your side. This is the plateau's stone fruit ground: Montana Mango and Harlayne apricots, White Gold cherry, Glohaven and Siberian C peaches, Bartlett pear and any apple you like, from Honeycrisp to Ashmead's Kernel. On floors like Mountain View Ranches, keep the apricots and peaches up the slope.

Most of Flagstaff, Kachina Village, Mountainaire, Munds Park and Timberline, −17°F to −21°F (MFTC 5a and 4b)

Varieties rated −25°F or colder clear all of this. The −20°F ones, like Baldwin and Kandil Sinap apples, fit the −17°F to −20°F ground and are worth a try at −21°F in a sheltered spot. Apples are the backbone, since they bloom later: Zestar!, Haralson, Liberty. On the slopes add Debbie's Gold apricot, Black Gold cherry, Mount Royal plum and Flemish Beauty pear. In the hollows that read cold in spring, stick to apples, honeyberries, Pixwell gooseberry and Nova raspberry.

Fort Valley, Bellemont, the Arboretum side and the Mormon Lake shore, −22°F to −27°F (MFTC 4b and 4a)

Plan on varieties rated −30°F or colder for the floors; the −25°F ones are worth a try there and fit the slopes around them. With 68 to 79 frost-free days at the meadow stations, lean on what forgives frost: Norland and Prairie Sensation apples, Kerr and Trailman applecrabs (if you only plant one tree, make it one of these), Consort black currant, Jeanne gooseberry and rhubarb. Evans Bali tart cherry, Krasnobokaya pear and Brookred plum go on the slopes, not the meadow floor. A season that short can leave late apples and pears unripe, so give everything the sunniest slope you've got.

Site, roots and local problems

Plant on a slope, off the floor and off the windswept top, with at least 6 hours of direct sun, and clear out brush or pines that dam cold air at the bottom; Montana State recommends a 4 to 8 percent grade. Roots are the weak link, and snow is their best cover; at Ed Schultz's farm in Gallatin Gateway, Montana, Bud 118 apple rootstock has seen near −50°F under snow with no rootstock damage. On bare, windswept ground, mulch and keep the soil moist into winter.

Water by drip, the only irrigation we advise for fruit trees in dry country, and plan for a dry June before the monsoon. On the zone 4 ground at Fort Valley and Bellemont, taper the water from mid-August so trees harden off before the first fall frosts (median September 7 at the Fort Valley station, September 13 at Bellemont's); a tree still growing at the first hard freeze takes damage a dormant one wouldn't. Elk and deer are common (the country around Munds Park is known for both), so fence young trees.

Fruit history here

The orchard history is down in Oak Creek Canyon. After John J. Thompson settled there in 1876, apples and peaches became the biggest part of Sedona's early economy. Frank Pendley arrived in 1907 and planted apples in 1912 on what's now Slide Rock State Park: 15 heirloom apple varieties plus peaches, pears and apricots, watered by a flume anchored to the sandstone walls that's still in use. Even there a 17°F night once killed the blossoms. The park still runs a working apple farm. In Uptown, Walter and Ruth Jordan grew mostly apples and peaches on 60 acres from 1931, and the Sedona Heritage Museum keeps the last 5 acres and the packing sheds.

Flagstaff's fruit is backyard fruit. Flagstaff Foodlink's Flagstaff Fruit Tree Project gleans backyard trees for food pantries, and in 2017 the Coconino Master Gardener Association ran a workshop at Ponderosa High School grafting apples from established Flagstaff "rock star" trees. A tree that has cropped in Flagstaff for decades has already passed the test this page is about.

Questions people ask

What growing zone is Flagstaff?

Downtown Flagstaff plans for −19°F, MFTC zone 5a, with a typical winter of −8°F. One source puts Flagstaff mostly in USDA zone 6a, with some 5b; USDA's is based on an average winter, ours on the bad night we plan for. Fort Valley and Bellemont plan for −26°F and −27°F (4a).

When is the last frost in Flagstaff?

At the Flagstaff airport station the median last 32°F is June 4 and the first in fall September 26, about 108 frost-free days (1991 to 2020); one year in ten the last frost comes June 21 or later. The Fort Valley station, out in the meadow, has a median last frost of June 25 and 68 frost-free days.

Why does Flagstaff lose its fruit so many years?

Late spring freezes kill the blossoms, which start dying near 28°F, and the airport's last 28°F comes around May 24. University of Arizona Extension says Flagstaff often loses its crop to late freezes while the Verde Valley rarely does. In 2018, with no late frost, Flagstaff had a huge crop of apples, cherries, plums and pears.

Can you grow peaches in Flagstaff?

The trees, yes. Downtown plans for −19°F, and every peach we sell has come through −25°F or colder. The crop is the hard part, since peaches bloom early into a frost season that runs into June, so give them the warmest spring ground, like the east side slopes or the mesas.

Where are the frost pockets around Flagstaff?

The open meadows and lake basins: Fort Valley (−26°F), Bellemont (−27°F) and the Mormon Lake shore (−23°F to −24°F). In town, Cheshire and Valley Crest plan for −21°F, and on spring nights Ponderosa Trails and Lakeside Acres read 4°F to 5°F colder than downtown.

Is Sedona warmer than Flagstaff for fruit?

Much warmer. Uptown Sedona plans for +9°F (MFTC 7b) to downtown Flagstaff's −19°F, and the Sedona station's median last spring frost is April 12, against June 4 at the Flagstaff airport. Everything we sell clears Sedona's winter, so bloom timing is what to watch.

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.