Fruit Trees for Kansas City, Overland Park, Olathe, Independence and Lee's Summit, Missouri and Kansas

In the cold snap of February 3, 2011, the station 3 miles east of Kearney read −19°F while the Downtown Airport, down in a bend of the Missouri River, read −6°F. That's 13°F apart. That spread, and the way spring frost settles into the creek and river bottoms at bloom, decides where fruit trees for Kansas City, Overland Park, Olathe, Independence and Lee's Summit do best. The map covers both Kansas Cities, Johnson County out to Olathe and Gardner, eastern Jackson and Cass counties out to Blue Springs and Raymore, the Northland from North Kansas City to KCI, Liberty and Kearney, and Leavenworth and Lansing up the river.

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 to plan for: the same one our cold hardiness calculator uses, with a small nudge for the ground right around you. It's a safe planning number, not the record. The MFTC zone is that number in half zones, and the typical winter number is an average year's coldest night, the kind of average USDA's map is built on. The spring layer shows how many degrees warmer or colder a spot runs than downtown Kansas City on a still, clear night at bloom.

Downtown plans for −10°F, MFTC zone 6a, with a typical winter low of 2°F. The middle of the map's growing ground plans for −16°F (zone 5a), and half of it falls between −18°F and −15°F. The warm end is the city core and the bluff tops: Quality Hill, Union Hill and Strawberry Hill all plan for −10°F. The cold end, −20°F and colder, is the Kaw bottoms west of Edwardsville, the open upland around KCI (Ferrelview −20°F) and the Clay County valleys around Kearney and Mosby (−21°F). Most of what we sell clears all of it, so here spring frost does more of the sorting than winter does.

Why the map looks the way it does

Kansas City grew up on the bluffs where the Kansas River, the Kaw, meets the Missouri at Kaw Point, 718 feet. The Missouri crosses the north half of the map in a floodplain 2 to more than 3 miles wide along Wyandotte County. South of the rivers the ground climbs onto the Osage Plains, and Lee's Summit is named for being the highest point on the railroad between Kansas City and St. Louis. Everything drains north to the Missouri: the Blue River through Kansas City, the Little Blue through eastern Jackson County, and Turkey, Brush, Indian, Mill and Kill creeks on the Kansas side.

On a still, clear night cold air slides off that upland into the bottoms and pools there, with milder air sitting above it, and the bluff tops that reach up into that milder layer are the thermal belt. That's how cold air moves through this airshed. Quality Hill, 210 feet above its floor, runs 3°F warmer than downtown on a frost night at bloom, while Parkville's riverfront center reads 13°F colder and Lake of the Forest, in the Kaw bottoms near Bonner Springs, 16°F colder, among the coldest spring readings of any named place on the map. A Hungarian study of 69 clear, calm nights found a valley floor averaging 6.7°F colder than a slope 230 feet higher, and the bluffs here are about that tall.

The winter low has a different shape: mild in the middle, colder outward. The Downtown Airport station, at 742 feet the lowest station on the map, sits on the Missouri River floor where you'd expect cold to pool, yet NOAA station records show the stations around it running colder: KCI and the Reed wildlife area station near Lee's Summit by 4°F in a typical year's coldest night, the old Olathe station, Leavenworth and the Olathe Industrial Airport by about 3°F. That fits the city's heat winning out over the drainage. Pavement and buildings store heat and hide the sky, most of all on the calm, clear nights when cold pools. When fall 2023's first frost came on October 17, KSHB's frost map showed patchy frost across the area except near the heart of Kansas City and Lee's Summit.

Away from the city the stations get colder, and height has little to do with it. KCI, at 1,008 feet on what was open farmland 15 miles northwest of downtown, averages about 18.8 inches of snow a season to the Downtown Airport's 13.4 (air over snow runs colder), and its 30-year number is −18°F. The stations 3 miles east of Kearney and at Bonner Springs, both at about 850 feet, carry −21°F, the coldest of any station on the map.

Smithville Lake, Longview Lake and Lake Jacomo are reservoirs, and we don't count on a reservoir to warm its shore; Smithville itself plans for −19°F. Some of the residential lake towns sit at the low point of their own drainage: Lake Lotawana, 10 feet above its floor, plans for −17°F and reads 13°F colder than downtown in spring.

Downtown, the river bluffs and the West Bottoms

Downtown sits on the bluffs south of the Missouri, 170 feet above its floor, and plans for −10°F, MFTC zone 6a. Within 3 miles the floor runs a median of −12°F and even the coldest tenth of growing ground only −13°F, some of the mildest ground on the map. Quality Hill, on the bluff on the west side of the business district, plans for −10°F and reads 3°F warmer than downtown on a still bloom night; Union Hill, 230 feet above its floor, does the same, and Pendleton Heights and Columbus Park plan for −10°F too.

Below the bluff, the West Bottoms (−12°F) sit 10 feet above the floor and read 10°F colder in spring, and across the river Harlem (−11°F) and North Kansas City (−12°F) read 10°F and 9°F colder. That's what the terrain says. The Downtown Airport, out in the middle of those bottoms, has the earliest median last frost of any station here, which fits the city's warmth counting for more there than terrain alone gives it. Still, keep apricots and peaches on the highest, most sheltered corner of a bottoms lot.

Midtown, the Plaza, Brookside and the Blue River valley

South of downtown the ground is a run of low ridges and creek valleys, and the numbers change block to block. Westport, 120 feet above its floor, plans for −12°F and reads 3°F colder than downtown in spring; the Country Club Plaza, 10 feet above the floor of its valley, plans for −14°F and reads 9°F colder. Along Ward Parkway and through the Country Club District the winter stays mild (Ward Parkway −11°F, the Country Club District −13°F) but spring reads about 7°F colder, Brookside 10°F colder and Waldo (−11°F) 9°F colder. In the Country Club District, Sunset Hill (−14°F) is the exception, only 1°F colder.

On the map the Blue River valley is the cold corridor through the south side, and the trail on its old railroad bed runs from Dodson to Martin City. Dodson, right on the floor, plans for −16°F and reads 9°F colder in spring, Red Bridge, which the map reads as a cold-air drainage channel, 13°F colder, and Martin City plans for −16°F. Up on the ridges, Hickman Mills (−13°F) and Ruskin Heights (−14°F), 130 to 150 feet above their floor, read only 3°F colder, and Grandview, 150 feet up, plans for −14°F over a floor of −18°F.

Kansas City, Kansas: Strawberry Hill, the bluffs and the Kaw bottoms

Kansas City, Kansas is deeply cut country, with up to about 320 feet of local relief and high bluffs over both rivers. The center of KCK plans for −10°F, 130 feet above its floor. Strawberry Hill, settled after the 1903 flood uphill from the old "Strawberry Patch" in the bottoms, plans for −10°F and reads 2°F warmer than downtown Kansas City in spring. Riverview, once its own town on the bluffs above the Kansas River, plans for −10°F and Rosedale −12°F. Turner (−11°F) and Shawnee Heights (−12°F), 210 to 240 feet above their floor, read 1°F warmer in spring, and Quindaro Bluffs and Nearman Hills (both −12°F) read 1°F and 2°F warmer.

Below them it flips. Fairfax and Armourdale, on the floor, plan for −12°F and −14°F and read 10°F colder in spring, and Nearman, in the Missouri bottoms under Nearman Hills, reads 13°F colder. West of the city it all runs colder: Bethel −14°F, Village West and Piper −17°F. The Kaw bottoms are the coldest on the Kansas side, with Edwardsville at −18°F (11°F colder in spring), Lake of the Forest −19°F (16°F colder) and Wilder −20°F. Bonner Springs' own bench, 100 feet above its floor, plans for −20°F but reads only 1°F colder than downtown in spring: cold in a deep winter, decent for blossoms.

Overland Park, Olathe, Lenexa, Shawnee and the Shawnee Mission cities

Johnson County is gently rolling prairie with wooded creek corridors, climbing north to south away from the rivers. Overland Park's center, 130 feet above its floor, plans for −14°F, MFTC zone 5b, over a floor of −16°F and benches of −13°F, and reads about 4°F colder than downtown Kansas City in spring. Most of the city drains to the Blue River through Indian and Tomahawk creeks, and the creek ground shows it: Nall Hills, 20 feet above its floor, plans for −16°F and reads 10°F colder in spring. Leawood plans for −14°F and reads 3°F colder.

Mission and Roeland Park, on benches 110 to 120 feet above their floor, plan for −12°F and read 3°F colder in spring. Prairie Village (−13°F) and Mission Hills (−15°F), which Brush Creek runs through, sit lower, and Westwood Hills, in what the map reads as a draw, reads 11°F colder. Merriam (−15°F) reads about the same as downtown in spring, one of the best bloom readings in the county, and Lenexa (−13°F, 140 feet up) only 2°F colder. Shawnee plans for −14°F but reads 7°F colder.

Olathe's original townsite was open prairie, and the map puts its center just 30 feet above its floor: −16°F, MFTC zone 5a, 7°F colder in spring, with floor and benches both about −16°F. Gardner plans for −16°F and reads 9°F colder. The two Olathe airport stations show how much a little ground matters: the Industrial Airport, out toward Gardner, carries a 30-year number of −17°F to the Executive Airport's −15°F, and in the February 2011 cold snap it read −14°F to the Executive's −9°F.

Independence, Raytown, Lee's Summit and Eastern Jackson County

Independence sits on high ground south of the Missouri. Its center, 160 feet above its floor, plans for −12°F and reads about the same as downtown in spring, while the floor within 3 miles runs −17°F. Maywood plans for −15°F and reads 9°F colder in spring, and Sugar Creek also plans for −15°F. Raytown, on the ridge between the Big Blue and Little Blue that pioneers called Blue Ridge, plans for −13°F and reads 1°F colder in spring over a floor of −17°F.

On the map the Little Blue is the cold corridor through eastern Jackson County. The Little Blue Valley neighborhood sits right on the floor at −17°F and reads 12°F colder in spring, and nearby Knobtown 13°F colder. Lee's Summit's center, on a toe slope 90 feet above its floor, plans for −14°F and reads 5°F colder; Unity Village (−16°F) reads about the same as downtown. Blue Springs plans for −15°F (4°F colder), and Lake Tapawingo, Greenwood and Pleasant Hill −17°F. To the south, Belton (1,102 feet, where the Little Blue rises) plans for −14°F, and Raymore, 110 feet above its floor, −11°F; Raymore's station, on only 11 years, has the mildest 30-year number here, −10°F.

The Northland: North Kansas City, Gladstone, Parkville, Liberty and Kearney

North of the river the bottoms come first. North Kansas City (−12°F), Riverside (−13°F) and Northmoor (−14°F) sit 10 to 30 feet above their floor and read 8°F to 9°F colder in spring. Parkville's center, 20 feet up, plans for −15°F and reads 13°F colder, but Parkdale, 140 feet up to the east, plans for −12°F and reads 1°F warmer than downtown. Gladstone, on a bench 120 feet up, plans for −12°F (4°F colder in spring), Platte Woods −14°F (1°F colder) and Weatherby Lake −17°F (7°F colder).

Toward KCI the upland opens up and runs colder: Tiffany Springs −16°F, Ferrelview −20°F. The KCI station, Kansas City's official reporting station, carries −18°F, and its coldest reading since 1995 was −16°F on January 15, 2024. In Clay County, Liberty, 80 feet above its floor, plans for −15°F (4°F colder in spring) and Claycomo −15°F; the Missouri bottoms east of the city read 11°F to 12°F colder in spring (Missouri City −18°F). Farther north and east are the coldest winters of any named places on the map: Kearney, on the valley floor, plans for −21°F, MFTC zone 4b, the same as its station 3 miles east of town; Mosby −21°F, Excelsior Springs −20°F and Smithville −19°F.

Leavenworth, Lansing and Platte City

Leavenworth sits on a hillside 70 feet above its floor and plans for −18°F, 4°F colder than downtown in spring, over a floor of −20°F. Fort Leavenworth, on a bench 110 feet up, plans for −16°F and reads only 1°F colder in spring, the best bloom reading of any named place at this end of the map. Lansing plans for −19°F. Across the river, East Leavenworth (−17°F), Farley (−17°F, near where the Platte joins the Missouri) and Platte City (−18°F) read 8°F to 11°F colder in spring. Up the Kaw past De Soto, the Topeka and Lawrence map covers you.

Spring frost and bloom around Kansas City

Bloom-night frost settles in the same bottoms and draws as the winter cold, only shallower: on spring frost nights the cold layer usually tops out 30 to 200 feet above the ground (the FAO's frost protection manual). Open blossoms of apple, pear, cherry, peach, apricot and plum all start dying at about 28°F (Michigan State's fruit people), and NC State's orchard guide says 3°F to 4°F can separate no crop from a full one.

Now the frost dates, 1991 to 2020 medians from NOAA station records. The Downtown Airport, on the river floor but in the middle of the city, has the earliest median last 32°F of any station here, April 4, and the longest frost-free season, 210 days; one spring in ten its last 32°F comes April 16. The KCI station's last 32°F comes April 10 (194 days, April 23 in a late year). The Olathe Industrial Airport station runs to April 14 (193 days, May 3 in a late year) against the Olathe Executive Airport station's April 8 (200 days). The Reed wildlife area station near Lee's Summit runs to April 14, and to May 6 in a late year, the latest of any station here. The Independence station has the shortest season, 190 days.

In early April 2007, after a warm March pushed apples into bloom unusually early, Missouri had several days in the mid 20s°F. Paul Peters, with 500 acres of apples and peaches about an hour east of Kansas City, reported major blossom damage, and Missouri was left with no peaches and few apples.

Site is the single most important frost protection there is, in the FAO's words. Put apricots, peaches, sweet cherries and plums on bluff tops, ridges and benches that read near downtown or better, like the ones named above. Keep the low ground for apples, which need only about 15 percent of their blossoms to set a crop (Minnesota's fruit people), for honeyberries, whose open flowers take 19°F, and for bush fruit. Open up any hedge or strip of woods across the slope below your trees. On a bloom frost night, 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 watering the ground a day or two ahead helps.

What the weather records say

The coldest readings on file, from NOAA station records: −34°F at the old Edgerton station in Johnson County, at the map's edge, on December 25, 1983; −29°F at the old Olathe station and at Liberty on February 12, 1899; −27°F at Leavenworth on December 23, 1989; −25°F at the Reed station and −23°F at KCI on December 22 and 23, 1989; and −19°F at the Downtown Airport on December 22, 1989. Around Christmas 1983 Edgerton read −34°F while the Downtown Airport read −13°F, 21°F apart in one cold snap.

Since the 1995-96 winter, the window our planning low is built from, no station here has gone below −19°F (Kearney's station in February 2011, Bonner Springs in February 2021), and every station's 30-year number sits 2°F to 4°F colder than its worst since then. December 1989 was colder, and older than the window, so plant with room to spare. That's easy here: nearly everything we sell has come through −25°F or colder.

USDA's 2023 map puts Kansas City in zone 6b (0°F to −5°F). USDA's zones are built on an average winter's coldest night; our MFTC zones run half a zone to two zones colder because they're built on the bad night you plan for. Johnson County Extension says many experienced gardeners here still plant to zone 5 as a safety margin, and that winter damage here comes mostly from sudden warm-to-cold swings rather than the low itself.

What you can grow here

Early bloomers go on your best ground, so check your spot's spring reading in the box before you plant an apricot or a peach.

The city core, bluff tops and high ridges: −10°F to −13°F

Downtown, the bluff tops on both sides of the state line, Westport, Waldo, Mission, Lenexa, Independence, Raytown, Gladstone and Raymore. Everything rated −20°F or colder clears: Bing sweet cherry, Santa Rosa plum, Flavortop nectarine, Baldwin apple, plus everything hardier. For peaches, Contender (Tom McCamant grows it at Forbidden Fruit Orchard in Paradise, Montana, and it's the only commercial peach we know of that has taken −32°F), Redstar and Glohaven. For apricots, Goldrich, Harlayne and Tomcot. Chicago Hardy Fig has come through −10°F, so it fits downtown and the −10°F bluff tops and is worth a try elsewhere in this band against a south or west wall. Montana Trial Persimmon (−25°F) and Montana Trial Pawpaw (−30°F) fit easily.

Most of the metro: −13°F to −17°F

Overland Park, Leawood, Shawnee, Olathe, Lee's Summit, Blue Springs, Belton, Liberty, Parkville and Fort Leavenworth. Everything above still clears except the fig, which is only worth a try where the map reads −15°F or milder. For apples, Honeycrisp, Zestar!®, Liberty, Enterprise, William's Pride, Pristine and Evercrisp. Pears go on higher ground, since they bloom early: Harrow Sweet, Seckel and Bartlett. For plums, Toka is a good pollenizer for Superior, and Stanley fits too (the pollination maps show partners). Blushingstar peach came through −25°F at our place on January 13, 2024 without damage, and Siberian C, the hardiest peach we know of and a very late ripener, had flower buds take 28°F without damage at our place in spring 2026. For sweet cherries, Lapins and Gold (−35°F) are the hardiest we've found, and Montmorency for tart.

The cold bottoms and the open north and west: −17°F to −21°F

The Kaw bottoms, Basehor, Lansing, Leavenworth, Platte City, the ground around KCI, Smithville, Kearney, Mosby and Excelsior Springs. Everything rated −25°F or colder clears. The −20°F ratings clear down to about −19°F and are only worth a try at the −20°F to −21°F spots. These bottoms carry some of the worst spring readings on the map, so plant them with apples and bush fruit: Haralson, Wolf River, Kerr and Trailman applecrabs (if you only plant one tree, make it one of these), Honeyberry, Montana Black Currant (we've never seen winter damage on it), Red Lake currant, Hinnomaki Red gooseberry and Boyne raspberry. Keep pears off the frosty floor; benches like Bonner Springs' are for the stone fruit.

Roots, site and local troubles

Roots are the weak link, and snow usually protects them; Kansas City doesn't get much. At Ed Schultz's farm in Gallatin Gateway, Montana, Bud 118 apple rootstock has seen near −50°F with no rootstock damage, under snow, so here mulch the root zone and keep the soil moist into winter. Bob Purvis's rules hold: an east-facing slope is ideal, and plant on the slope, not on a windswept hilltop or down in the bottom, and Montana State recommends a 4 to 8 percent grade. Test drainage: dig 2 feet, fill it, let it drain, refill it, and under 10 hours is well drained. From MU Extension, the local troubles are cedar apple rust, whose alternate host is eastern red cedar and whose spores carry up to a mile, and fire blight, favored above 65°F when it's wet. For the warm-to-cold swings, help trees harden off: no late nitrogen or heavy late water, and no late-fall pruning.

Fruit history here

In 1804 Lewis and Clark stopped at the future site of Independence to pick plums, raspberries and wild apples. Kansas's first orchard, 12 acres, was planted in 1837 by Rev. Thomas Johnson at the Methodist mission near Shawneetown. Joseph Stayman settled in Leavenworth in 1860, tested varieties in two orchards of about 3,000 trees, introduced the Stayman apple in 1866 and helped found the Kansas State Horticultural Society that year. We sell his apple as Stayman Winesap; it has come through −30°F, which clears every spot on this map. Frederick Wellhouse, the "Apple King," planted one of the first commercial orchards in southern Leavenworth County in 1876 and at one point had about 1,600 acres of orchard. Today the Historic Weston Orchard and Vineyard, just north of the map, grows about 17,000 apple trees on 50 acres, Evercrisp among them.

Questions people ask

What growing zone is Kansas City?

Downtown Kansas City plans for −10°F, MFTC zone 6a, and most of the metro plans for −12°F to −18°F, zone 5a to 5b; Kearney and Mosby reach 4b at −21°F. USDA's 2023 map puts Kansas City in 6b (0°F to −5°F). USDA's zone is built on an average winter's coldest night, ours on the bad night we plan for.

When is the last frost in Kansas City?

At the Downtown Airport station the median last 32°F is April 4, and one spring in ten it's April 16. At the KCI station it's April 10, and at the Olathe Industrial Airport and the Reed station near Lee's Summit April 14, with late years running to May 3 and May 6.

Is it colder north of the river in Kansas City?

Mostly, yes. The KCI station runs 4°F colder than the Downtown Airport in a typical year's coldest night and gets more snow. North Kansas City and Gladstone plan for −12°F, but Liberty plans for −15°F, the KCI station −18°F and Kearney −21°F, against −10°F downtown.

Can you grow peaches in Kansas City?

Yes. Every named place on this map plans for −21°F or milder, and Contender and Blushingstar (−30°F), Redstar and Glohaven (−25°F) and Siberian C (−35°F) all clear it. Plant them on bluff tops and benches with a good spring reading; April 2007 left Missouri with no peaches at all.

Where are the frost pockets around Kansas City?

On a still bloom night: the Kaw bottoms from Edwardsville to Bonner Springs (Lake of the Forest reads 16°F colder than downtown), the Missouri bottoms at Parkville and Nearman (13°F colder), and the Little Blue valley, Red Bridge and Lake Lotawana (12°F to 13°F colder). In winter the coldest ground is the Clay County valleys around Kearney, Mosby and Excelsior Springs, at −20°F to −21°F.

Can figs survive Kansas City winters?

Chicago Hardy Fig has come through −10°F, right at the planning low for downtown and the warmest bluff tops (Quality Hill, Union Hill, Strawberry Hill). Where the map reads −11°F to −15°F it's worth a try against a south or west wall.

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.