Fruit Trees for Joliet, Orland Park, Tinley Park and the South Suburbs, Illinois

On January 26, 2022, Midway Airport read −5°F. Romeoville and Park Forest read −8°F, Frankfort and Homer Glen −11°F, Crete −14°F and the Joliet airport −15°F. That 10°F spread on a single morning is the first thing to know when you're choosing fruit trees for Joliet, Orland Park, Tinley Park and the south suburbs. This map runs from the Des Plaines valley at Romeoville, Lockport and Joliet east through Orland Park and the Palos country to Blue Island, Beverly and the Calumet Region at the Indiana line, and south across Will County to Wilmington, Peotone and Beecher.

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, tuned for the ground around you: a safe night to plan for, not the record and not a forecast. The MFTC zone is that number in half zones, typical winter is an ordinary year's coldest night (the kind of average USDA uses), and the spring layer is how much warmer or colder a spot runs than downtown Joliet, our reference town, on a clear, calm night at bloom.

Downtown Joliet, on the Des Plaines at 539 ft, plans for −24°F, MFTC zone 4b, with a typical winter of −10°F. The middle of the map plans for −22°F, and half the growing ground sits between −23°F and −21°F, a tight map by our standards. The warm end, zone 5a, is the Blue Island ridge and Chicago's Far South Side, where Blue Island, Beverly and Stewart Ridge plan for −18°F, the warmest named places we checked. The cold end, zone 4a, is the Des Plaines floor, where Lockport and the river bottom at Romeo, just east of Romeoville, plan for −26°F.

Why the map looks the way it does

The broad pattern runs from Lake Michigan and the city in the northeast to open prairie and river valleys in the southwest. NOAA station records put the average year's coldest night at about −8°F at Midway, just off the map's north edge, and −11°F at the Park Forest water plant and the Romeoville weather office. The Illinois State Climatologist credits Lake Michigan and urban development for most of the Chicago area landing in USDA zone 6a while most of northern Illinois is 5b. The map follows suit, from −18°F on the Blue Island ridge to −26°F down the Des Plaines valley. The gap isn't fixed: on January 20, 1985, Park Forest read −27°F to the old University of Chicago station's −24°F, but in the January 21, 1984 snap the Brandon Road lock read −24°F to the University of Chicago's −14°F.

The Valparaiso Moraine arcs through Will County with its Illinois crest at about 750 to 900 ft, the Tinley Moraine sits inside it, and east of both lies the bed of glacial Lake Chicago, which drained southwest through the Sag and Des Plaines valleys. That outlet left the lowest ground on the map: downtown Joliet at 539 ft and the river bottom at Millsdale, southwest of town, at 520 ft, more than 200 ft below Frankfort (758 ft) and Monee (809 ft). On a clear, calm night cold air slides off the uplands and settles on the valley floor. Within 3 miles of Joliet the floor plans for −24°F and the bluffs above it −21°F; at Lockport it's −27°F against −23°F, at Romeoville and Lemont −25°F against −22°F.

The spring layer runs the terrain at full strength, and the valley walls stand out. Lidice and Raynor Park, 80 to 100 ft above the river at Joliet's north edge, read 7°F to 8°F warmer than downtown on a still bloom night, and Palisades, on a bench 100 ft up north of Sag Bridge, reads 8°F warmer, the best spring reading of any named place on the map. Michigan State's old orchard survey found ridges only 25 to 30 ft above the plain could be nearly as frost-free as high hills; that's the scale that counts here.

The valley floor isn't one simple frost pocket, though. NOAA's Brandon Road Lock and Dam station sits right on the river where Hickory Creek comes in, at 543 ft, yet its average yearly low is milder than Park Forest's, Romeoville's or the old Joliet station's, and its spring frost dates run a week ahead of Romeoville's. In the January 5, 1999 snap the Dresden Island dam station downstream at Channahon read −24°F while Brandon Road read −17°F. We haven't found a published explanation. The map blends the eight nearest stations, so at Brandon Road it plans for −23°F, about 2°F colder than the lock's own 30-year number.

East of the valley the ground flattens into the old lake bed, where the Little Calumet is so flat its current barely moves. With no slope to drain the cold, small rises do the work. The Blue Island ridge, an island when the lake stood higher, rises about 40 ft above the plain to the highest ground in Chicago, and Blue Island reads 6°F warmer than downtown Joliet in spring while the Little Calumet bottoms at Burnham and North Harvey read 1°F colder.

Water does less than you'd guess. Lake Michigan only touches the map's northeast corner, and we haven't found anything measuring how far its warmth reaches inland here; the Palos sloughs are shallow (Saganashkee, the biggest, is 6.3 ft at its deepest), and water that shallow freezes early. Brick and pavement hold heat on still nights (the map credits built-up ground with up to 2.5°F), and the State Climatologist notes open countryside can run a few degrees colder than town on frost nights.

Joliet, Crest Hill and Rockdale

Downtown Joliet and the Joliet East Side Historic District sit on the valley floor and plan for −24°F. Preston Heights to the south and Idylside to the west, 90 to 100 ft up, plan for −20°F, and Preston Heights reads 7°F warmer than downtown in spring. The map's point in the Upper Bluff Historic District, 70 ft up on the west side, plans for −21°F but sits in a draw that carries cold air down, so in spring it reads no better than downtown. North of downtown, Raynor Park and Lidice plan for −23°F to −24°F, about downtown's number, but read 7°F to 8°F warmer in spring. On the east side, Ridgewood (110 ft up) plans for −23°F and reads 6°F warmer, Ingalls Park 5°F warmer. Crest Hill, where the Des Plaines and the Sanitary and Ship Canal come together, plans for −23°F, with its floor at −24°F and its bluffs at −21°F; Rockdale, low in the valley southwest of downtown, plans for −22°F.

The floor is apple, tart cherry and bush fruit ground: Honeycrisp and Liberty apples, Evan's Bali tart cherry, honeyberries (open flowers take 19°F) and Red Lake currant, which fruited well for us after its flower buds saw about 22°F. The bluffs are for Tomcot and Harlayne apricots, Contender peach, Lapins sweet cherry and pears like Harrow Sweet.

Lockport, Romeoville, Lemont and Bolingbrook

North of Joliet the Des Plaines runs beside the Sanitary and Ship Canal and the old I&M Canal, now the Illinois and Michigan National Heritage Corridor, and this stretch holds the map's coldest winter numbers. Lockport, on the east bank and named for the canal's Lock No. 1, plans for −26°F at 592 ft, zone 4a, with a typical winter of −12°F; its floor runs −27°F, the coldest valley floor of any town we checked, and its benches −23°F. Romeoville plans for −25°F, with its benches at −22°F. The Romeoville weather office station (660 ft) has run a median 3°F colder than the Park Forest water plant (710 ft) over 31 winters, so judge a site by how it drains, not its elevation. Lemont, on a hillside above the river, plans for −23°F and reads 2°F warmer than downtown Joliet in spring. Sag Bridge, low in the Sag Valley east of Lemont, reads 1°F colder than downtown Joliet. In Bolingbrook, Barbers Corners, 70 ft above the floor, reads 7°F warmer than downtown Joliet in spring. Plainfield and Naperville are on our western suburbs and Fox Valley map.

This is the one stretch where the −25°F tier gets tight: Stella sweet cherry, the −25°F peaches and SnowCzar almond are worth a try on the Lockport and Romeoville floor in a sheltered spot, and good picks on the benches.

Palos, the Sag Valley and Orland Park

Meltwater carved the Sag Valley about 12,000 years ago and left steep walls like the 100 ft bluff at Swallow Cliff in Palos Park, and the Palos Forest Preserves cover about 15,000 acres of morainal hills, pothole lakes, marshes and sloughs around it. On a calm night the slopes drain into the Sag. Palos Hills, on the valley floor at 595 ft, plans for −22°F and reads even with downtown Joliet in spring. Hickory Hills, 80 ft above the floor about 2 miles north, plans for −19°F (zone 5a) and reads 5°F warmer; Palos Park, 90 ft up on the south side, plans for −20°F and reads 4°F warmer. Orland Park, on flatter ground at 705 ft, plans for −20°F and reads 2°F warmer than downtown Joliet, with its floor at −22°F and its benches at −20°F. Orland Hills, on the flats next door, reads 1°F colder than downtown Joliet in spring.

The Palos high ground and Hickory Hills can take the early bloomers: Westcot and Goldrich apricots, Superior and Toka plums (Toka is a good pollenizer for Superior; our pollination maps cover the rest), and even Bing cherry (−20°F) on a south wall.

Tinley Park, Mokena, Frankfort, New Lenox and Homer Glen

South and west of Orland Park is moraine country, spreading into a broad plain in Will County. Tinley Park plans for −21°F at 699 ft, Oak Forest −21°F, Mokena −23°F and Homer Glen −22°F, and Frankfort, at 758 ft, sits right on the line between −21°F and −22°F. With so little slope the spring readings stay bunched, from Mokena even with downtown Joliet to Oak Forest 3°F warmer. What separates one subdivision from the next is the creek bottoms. Hickory Creek runs west from New Lenox to the Des Plaines and Spring Creek runs through Hadley Valley, and creek bottoms like theirs frost first, and so does other low ground: Frankfort Square, north of Frankfort, and Lincolnwood Hills, east of New Lenox, read 1°F colder than downtown Joliet in spring, and Brisbane, just south of New Lenox, 2°F colder. New Lenox itself, on a toe slope, plans for −24°F and reads 4°F warmer.

The −25°F tier fits here on your highest, best-drained ground: Stella, Glohaven and Risingstar peaches and Hardired nectarine. Bing and Santa Rosa plum (−20°F) are only worth a try against a south wall in mild spots like Oak Forest.

Homewood, Flossmoor, Park Forest, Chicago Heights and Crete

Homewood sits on the old Calumet shoreline, the sand ridge Ridge Road follows, and Chicago Heights on the Tinley Moraine with the Valparaiso Moraine just south. Thorn Creek rises near University Park at about 765 ft and drops about 200 ft to the Little Calumet, cutting deep ravines that carry cold air down on still nights. Homewood plans for −20°F, Flossmoor, Hazel Crest and Steger −21°F, Park Forest and Chicago Heights −22°F and Olympia Fields −23°F. In spring, Country Club Hills and Ford Heights, on toe slopes, read 4°F warmer than downtown Joliet and Chicago Heights 3°F warmer, while Indian Hill on the west side of Chicago Heights reads 2°F colder. Crete, at 730 ft, plans for −22°F like Park Forest (there's no long-record station at Crete), but it read −14°F to Park Forest's −8°F that January 2022 morning, so if your own thermometer there keeps reading colder than town, plant to the colder number. Around Homewood and Flossmoor the −25°F tier has about 4°F to spare, so Redstar and Glohaven peaches fit on the toe slopes.

Beverly, Blue Island and the Calumet towns

Beverly (officially Beverly Hills, roughly 87th to 107th streets), Morgan Park, Mount Greenwood and Washington Heights ride the Blue Island ridge north of Blue Island, with the houses on Longwood Drive right on top of the hill. Beverly and Blue Island plan for −18°F, zone 5a, with typical winters of −5°F; Morgan Park plans for −19°F and Mount Greenwood and Washington Heights −20°F. Old brickyard pits around Blue Island became landfills, so test your soil. East and south, the Calumet towns sit on the flat lake bed. The mild end is Stewart Ridge and West Pullman (−18°F to −19°F) and Lansing and Dolton (−19°F); the cold end is Hegewisch, Trumbull Park Terrace, Dixmoor and Phoenix (−22°F). Spring readings sit within a degree or two of downtown Joliet nearly everywhere on the plain, so the small things decide it: an old beach ridge, a south-facing brick wall, a hollow in the yard. In Hammond, Munster or Dyer, our Northwest Indiana map covers you.

Wilmington, Manhattan, Peotone, Monee and Beecher

South of Joliet the map opens onto the Will County prairie, with Midewin restoring tallgrass and dolomite prairie just north of Wilmington. Elwood, Manhattan, Peotone and University Park plan for −22°F and Beecher and Manteno −21°F, and Monee, at 809 ft the highest town on the map, reads 3°F warmer than downtown Joliet in spring. Wilmington, the Island City, sits on the Kankakee where a big river island splits the main channel from an old mill race; the map's point in town is river bottom and plans for −24°F. Millsdale, on the river bottom southwest of Joliet, plans for −25°F. Bottoms like these take the frost first and, on the Des Plaines, the floods (1986, 2007 and 2008), so plant apples and bush fruit there and keep stone fruit and pears on the terraces.

Spring frost and bloom in the south suburbs

Everything we sell rated −30°F or colder clears every named place on this map and the −25°F tier clears more than 95 percent of the growing ground, so for most yards the question is bloom. Illinois Extension calls May the critical flowering month for northern Illinois orchards, and open blossoms of apple, pear, cherry, peach, apricot and plum all start dying near 28°F (Michigan State Extension).

NOAA station records for 1991 to 2020 put the median last 32°F at April 10 at the Midway airport station in the city, April 15 at the Brandon Road lock and dam station on the river in Joliet, April 20 at the Park Forest water plant and April 22 at the Romeoville weather office, up at 660 ft. The last 28°F comes March 31, April 5, April 6 and April 9 at those four, and in a late year (1 in 10) the last 32°F lands April 21, May 1, May 11 and May 21. The frost-free season runs 200 days at Midway, 184 at Brandon Road and 176 at Park Forest and Romeoville.

Inside the map, spring frost follows the winter drainage. The best bloom ground is the bluffs and benches on the valley walls (Palisades, Lidice, Barbers Corners, Raynor Park, Preston Heights and Ridgewood, all 6°F to 8°F warmer than downtown Joliet on a still night) and the Blue Island ridge. The moraine and lake-plain flats mostly read 0°F to 3°F warmer, and the bottoms run colder, down to Eagle Lake, a river-bottom spot in far eastern Will County, 3°F colder, the coldest spring reading of any named place on the map. NC State's fruit people say 3°F to 4°F can separate a full crop from none. One caution: the spring layer is terrain alone, stations rarely sit on a bluff or in a draw, and Brandon Road, on the river, has earlier last frosts than Romeoville, so the bluff-versus-bottom pattern is untested locally.

Freezes here follow early warmth. In 2012 a warm spring brought frosty nights and then drought; Kuipers Family Farm in Maple Park, west of the map, saved about half its apples with boilers and frost fans, and Illinois peaches were hurt worst in poorly air-drained spots. In 2026 five spring frosts cost Prairie Sky Orchard in Union, Illinois, 99 percent of its blooms.

So put apricots, peaches, plums, sweet cherries, almonds and pears on your highest, best-drained ground and keep apples, tart cherries, haskap and currants for the low spots; a south wall is warm in winter but pushes bloom earlier. Through bloom, mow under 2 inches, don't till, and water a day or two before a frost night (Illinois Extension notes wet soils hold heat). Frost cloth of 0.5, 0.9 and 1.5 oz per square yard gains about 4°F, 6°F and 8°F (Alabama Extension), and only about 15 percent of apple blossoms need to set for a crop (the University of Minnesota).

What the weather records say

The coldest morning on most of these stations' books is January 20, 1985: −27°F at the Park Forest water plant (its record in 68 years), −26°F at the Brandon Road lock (its record), −25°F at Midway and −29°F at the Kankakee treatment plant just off the map. NOAA's long-running Joliet station, on file back to 1894, holds its record at −25°F from December 26, 1914, and the Romeoville weather office bottomed out at −24°F on January 16, 2009 and again on January 31, 2019.

USDA's 2023 map puts most of the Chicago area in zone 6a and most of northern Illinois in 5b. USDA builds its zones on the average of each winter's coldest night, and Brandon Road's −10°F average sits on the 5b and 6a line. Ours are built on the bad night you plan for, which NOAA station records show runs a median 13°F below a station's average yearly low, so our MFTC zones here run 4a to 5a, usually more than a full zone colder than USDA's.

What you can grow here

With the coldest named places at −26°F, here's how we'd sort it by ground.

The Blue Island ridge, the Far South Side and the mild Calumet towns: −18°F to −20°F

From Beverly and Blue Island to Lansing, Dolton, Alsip, Hickory Hills and Palos Park, this is the only ground where the −20°F tier clears: Bing sweet cherry, Santa Rosa plum, Flavortop and Arctic Glo nectarines, Baldwin apple and Javid's Iranian almond, each with 0°F to 2°F to spare, so give them a south or west wall. With more room: Rainier sweet cherry, Shiro plum and Montana Trial persimmon.

Orland Park, Tinley Park, the Will County uplands and most of the south suburbs: −20°F to −23°F

The −25°F tier fits with 2°F to 5°F to spare: Stella, Glohaven, Redstar, Risingstar, Red Gold nectarine, SnowCzar almond and Glockenapfel apple. Solid picks with room: Veteran and Blushingstar peaches (Blushingstar came through −25°F at our place on January 13, 2024 without damage), Lapins and Rainier cherries, Tomcot apricot, Superior, Toka and Stanley plums, Bartlett pear, and apples from Zestar!® and Honeycrisp to Northern Spy and Evercrisp. Stone fruit and pears go on toe slopes and rises, never in the creek bottoms.

The Des Plaines valley and the Kankakee bottom: −23°F to −26°F

Joliet, Crest Hill, Lockport, Romeoville, Lemont, Bolingbrook and Wilmington. Everything rated −30°F or colder fits with 3°F or more to spare, and the −25°F tier is a good pick on the bluffs and on Joliet's floor, worth a try on the Lockport and Romeoville floor. On the bottoms: Haralson apple, Kerr applecrab, Meteor tart cherry, Montana Black currant and Nanking cherry. On the bluffs: Siberian C peach, Gold sweet cherry, D'Anjou and Seckel pears and Italian plum.

Roots, soil and local troubles

Roots are the weak link, and snow protects them: at Ed Schultz's farm in Gallatin Gateway, Montana, Bud 118 apple rootstock has seen near −50°F under snow with no rootstock damage, while bare frozen ground is what kills roots, so mulch young trees. Montana State recommends a 4 to 8 percent grade where cold won't settle. Test drainage on the ridge clay, old muck ground and the shallow rock near the Joliet, Romeoville and Thornton quarries (dig 2 ft, fill, let drain, refill; under 10 hours is well drained). Ask about fill on the Far Southeast Side, where steel slag around Lake Calumet is part of a Superfund cluster and Harbor Point Estates in Hegewisch sits on a former landfill. Illinois Extension flags apple scab and fire blight. We taper water from mid-August in zone 4 so trees harden off.

Orchards and truck farms here

This was vegetable country first. Dutch settlers founded South Holland in 1846, grew market produce for Chicago and from 1892 onion sets, enough to call the town the Onion Set Capital of the World. We haven't found a 19th century orchard district here. Today a 2022 guide lists one orchard in Will County or the south suburbs, Apples on Oak in Lockport (Homer Township): about 700 trees of 90 to 100 varieties on about 4 acres, including Arkansas Black, Ashmead's Kernel, Liberty, Cox's Orange Pippin, Sweet Sixteen and Williams' Pride, all of which we sell. It had no apples at all in 2014 after the hard winter before.

Questions people ask

What hardiness zone is Joliet?

Downtown Joliet plans for −24°F, MFTC zone 4b, with a typical winter of −10°F; the bluff neighborhoods run −20°F to −24°F and Lockport's floor −26°F to −27°F. USDA's 2023 map puts most of the Chicago area in 6a and most of northern Illinois in 5b; USDA's is based on an average winter, ours on the bad night we plan for.

What zone is Orland Park and Tinley Park?

Orland Park plans for −20°F and Tinley Park for −21°F, both MFTC zone 4b, and their low ground about −22°F; Hickory Hills and Palos Park, to the north, plan for −19°F to −20°F (zone 5a). USDA's 2023 map puts most of the Chicago area in 6a; it's based on an average winter, ours on the bad night we plan for.

When is the last frost in Joliet?

NOAA station records for 1991 to 2020 put the median last 32°F at April 15 at the Brandon Road lock and dam on the Des Plaines and April 22 at the Romeoville weather office; the last 28°F comes April 5 and April 9. In a late year (1 in 10) the last 32°F comes May 1 at Brandon Road and May 21 at Romeoville.

Can you grow peaches in the south suburbs?

Yes. Siberian C (−35°F) and Contender, Veteran and Blushingstar (−30°F) clear every named place on the map, and the −25°F peaches (Glohaven, Redstar, Risingstar) clear everything but the coldest Des Plaines floor around Lockport and Romeoville. Plant them high (the bluffs, the Blue Island ridge, the top of a rise), never in a creek bottom.

Why is it colder in Crete than in Chicago?

On January 26, 2022, Crete read −14°F while Midway read −5°F. The State Climatologist credits Lake Michigan and urban development for keeping the Chicago area milder than most of northern Illinois, and notes open countryside runs a few degrees colder than town on frost nights. The map plans Crete for −22°F, against −18°F on the Blue Island ridge.

Where are the frost pockets around Joliet and Orland Park?

The river and creek bottoms and other low ground. On a still bloom night Eagle Lake reads 3°F colder than downtown Joliet, Brisbane and Indian Hill 2°F colder, and Sag Bridge, Frankfort Square, Orland Hills and Burnham about 1°F colder. The bluffs above the Des Plaines and Palisades read 6°F to 8°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.