Fruit Trees for Warren, Sterling Heights, St. Clair Shores, Roseville and the Grosse Pointes, Michigan

In the late January 2019 cold snap, NOAA's Grosse Pointe Farms station got down to −17°F, tying the coldest reading in its 64 years on file, while the Detroit City Airport station bottomed out at −12°F. That's the kind of gap you're working with when you pick fruit trees for Warren, Sterling Heights, St. Clair Shores, Roseville and the Grosse Pointes, and it doesn't fall where most people would guess.

The map covers Detroit east of about Woodward up to 8 Mile, the five Pointes and Harper Woods, and the south end of Macomb County from Eastpointe and Warren to the east side of Sterling Heights, Clinton Township, Mount Clemens and the Harrison Township shore. It's mild country by our standards: every plant we sell but one has come through colder than any named place here plans for, so this page is mostly about where spring frost settles. 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 first number on a click is the 30-year planning low, what our cold hardiness calculator gives for that spot plus a small nudge for the ground around it. It's a cautious number to plan with, not a record or a promise of how often. With it come the MFTC zone (that number in half zones), the typical winter (an average year's coldest night, closer to USDA's zones) and the spring reading, which compares the spot with Warren on a calm, clear night at bloom.

Warren, the reference, plans for −13°F, MFTC zone 5b, with a typical winter of 0°F. Named places span only about 6°F, from −11°F at City Airport and Von Steuben on Detroit's east side to −17°F at Harper Woods and Cornerstone Village, just inland from the northern Pointes, and every named place is 5a or 5b. In spring the readings run from 4°F warmer than Warren on the Grosse Pointe Farms ridge and the St. Clair Shores lakefront to 2°F colder in the Clinton River bottoms at Sterling Heights, the coldest spring reading of any named place on the map.

Why the map looks the way it does

Start with how flat this is. It's glacial lake plain, nearly level clay, rising from Lake St. Clair at 574 feet and the shore towns at 577 to 590 feet to about 624 feet at Warren and 634 feet at City Airport, the highest named place on the map. Everything drains east through creeks that are mostly drains now, like the Red Run through Warren and the Harrington Drain through Fraser, to the Clinton River and the lake. With that little fall, cold air on a still night doesn't go far. Most of it forms right where it sits as the ground loses heat to a clear sky, and it hangs on in the lowest, wettest spots. The University of Minnesota's fruit people say even 20 feet of drop within an orchard can make a difference, and here 20 feet is real relief.

On ground this flat the winter number follows the stations, and the three long-record NOAA stations inside the map don't agree. Detroit City Airport (623 feet) has a 30-year number of −12°F, Windsor Riverside (617 feet) −13°F and Grosse Pointe Farms (613 feet) −16°F. On a handful of nights the Farms station has dropped well below the others: −15°F against −8°F at City Airport in the January 1972 cold snap, −17°F against −12°F in January 2019. We haven't found a published explanation for those nights. On January 19, 1994, the night that set the records at all three, it hardly mattered where you were: −17°F at City Airport and the Farms, −18°F at Windsor Riverside. Deep arctic air like that fills the whole basin.

Lake St. Clair is big but shallow, only 11 feet deep on average, and NOAA's Great Lakes lab describes it as quick to respond, with little capacity to store heat. It's usually iced over by the end of January and free of ice in March, and a lake only shelters its shore while it's open water. NRCS's description of this lake plain adds that the Great Lakes' moderating effect is minimal inland because the prevailing winds blow mostly offshore. So St. Clair Shores, Grosse Pointe and Grosse Pointe Farms plan for −14°F, the same as Roseville and Eastpointe. On this map the Lake St. Clair microclimate is a spring thing far more than a winter one.

The Detroit River is different water. It carries about 190,000 cubic feet a second out of the lake, and its head usually stays open because an ice bridge forms just above it. The riverfront neighborhoods plan for −12°F to −13°F, which fits the physics: open water moderates its shore, frozen water doesn't. The warmest ground, though, is back from the river around City Airport (634 feet, −11°F), Von Steuben (631 feet, −11°F) and I-94 Industrial Park (−12°F): the highest ground on the map, solid city, right around the station with the mildest 30-year number. Pavement and masonry store heat and buildings block the sky, so built-up ground stays warmer on calm, clear nights.

The cold side is the low ground just inland from the northern Pointes: Harper Woods (588 feet), Cornerstone Village (590 feet) and Grosse Pointe Woods (587 feet) at −17°F, and East English Village at −16°F. Much of the land behind this shore was marsh. The Grand Marais, the "great marsh," once covered the ground between the Grosse Pointe lighthouse and Conner's Creek, and in 1885 the county dug the Black Marsh Ditch to drain the swamp north to the Milk River and south to Fox Creek. Low, flat, poorly drained, grassy ground is where a still night's cold collects. The cold Farms station pulls this corner down too, and with the stations we have, we can't separate the two.

The spring layer is the terrain pattern at full strength, so the water shows up much more there: the shore and the riverfront mostly read 3°F to 4°F warmer than Warren on a still bloom night, while the Clinton River bottom at Sterling Heights reads 2°F colder and the flat interior of Detroit's east side about 1°F colder. Small numbers, but NC State's orchard guide makes the point that 3°F to 4°F can separate no crop from a full one.

Warren, Center Line and Sterling Heights

Warren is a 6 by 6 mile square from 8 Mile to 14 Mile wrapped around Center Line, its center at about 624 feet. It plans for −13°F (5b) with a typical winter of 0°F, and within 3 miles the coldest tenth of the ground plans −16°F and the warmest −13°F. Center Line plans −14°F and reads even with Warren at bloom; Van Dyke, west of the center, plans −15°F and reads 1°F colder. Put early bloomers on the higher, open lots, like Contender peach (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) and Westcot apricot (−45°F); apples like Honeycrisp (−45°F) go anywhere.

Only the east side of Sterling Heights is on this map; the west sides of Sterling Heights and Warren are on our Ann Arbor and Metro Detroit map. The Clinton River crosses the northeast part of the city, and the map spot by it is river bottom at 613 feet: −14°F (5b), typical winter −2°F, and 2°F colder than Warren at bloom. A river bottom is where cold settles first on a still April night, even in country this flat. Sterling Heights was rhubarb farmland into the 1950s, and our Rhubarb has come through −50°F.

Fraser, Clinton Township and Mount Clemens

Fraser, the square from 13 Mile to 15 Mile between Hayes and Kelly, sits at 613 feet, 10 feet above its floor. It plans for −15°F (just inside 5b), typical winter −2°F, and reads even with Warren at bloom; the Harrington and Sweeny drains are its low ground. Clinton Township runs milder than the dot on its map: the point OpenStreetMap uses plans −16°F (5a), but within 3 miles the floor's median is −14°F and the warmest tenth −13°F. Broad Acres, along Gratiot between 15 Mile and Quinn, plans −14°F and reads 2°F warmer than Warren in spring.

Mount Clemens, the county seat, sits on the Clinton River about 3 miles west of the lake at about 610 feet, 30 feet above its floor. It plans for −14°F (5b), typical winter −2°F, and reads 3°F warmer than Warren at bloom, one of the better spring readings away from the shore. Down on the river, Olsen-Southriver and Martin Luther King are river bottom and plan for −15°F, and Martin Luther King reads 1°F colder than Warren in spring. Seminole Hills plans −13°F. Downtown and the higher blocks will take apricots and peaches. Along the river, plant fruit that shrugs off bloom frost: Honeyberry (haskap flowers take 19°F fully open), Red Lake currant and apples like Northern Spy (−30°F).

Harrison Township and L'Anse Creuse Bay

Harrison Township is about 40 percent water, on the lake's northwest shore from L'Anse Creuse Bay to the Clinton River mouth. It plans for −14°F (5b) at 579 feet and reads even with Warren at bloom, but the shore does better in spring: Lakeside, on L'Anse Creuse Bay, reads 4°F warmer than Warren, and Saint Clair Haven reads 3°F warmer and plans −13°F. The river mouth plans −14°F and reads 1°F colder, low ground right at the lake. This is flood ground: Belvidere, started in 1835, was abandoned after the 1838 flooding, and the Clinton flooded the whole Selfridge base in March 1918.

The Mount Clemens station at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, just past the map's north edge at 580 feet, 6 feet above the lake, is the cold one on this side: 99 years on file, the coldest record of any station here (−24°F on February 10, 1912), an average yearly low of −6°F and the shortest frost-free season of the five stations with frost dates. We haven't found a published explanation. North of the map, our Port Huron, St. Clair and the Blue Water shore map picks up.

St. Clair Shores, Roseville and Eastpointe

St. Clair Shores, the long lakefront city here and home to the Nautical Mile, sits at about 580 feet. It plans for −14°F (5b), typical winter −1°F, and reads 4°F warmer than Warren on a still bloom night. That edge fades fast inland: Roseville, at 615 feet, plans for −14°F and reads 2°F warmer than Warren, and Eastpointe (East Detroit until 1992, and Halfway before that) plans for −14°F and reads even with Warren. Put the early bloomers on the lake side of St. Clair Shores: Harlayne apricot (−30°F), Redstar peach (−25°F) or White Gold sweet cherry (−35°F). In Roseville and Eastpointe, apples, European plums and tart cherries are the safer bets, like Italian plum (−35°F) and Montmorency (−35°F).

The Grosse Pointes and Harper Woods

Grosse Pointe Park is the lowest of the southern Pointes, 579 feet and level with its floor, with Windmill Pointe at the entrance to the Detroit River. It plans for −15°F (just inside 5b) and reads only 1°F warmer than Warren at bloom, lakefront or not. Grosse Pointe itself, at 588 feet with the Village on Kercheval, plans for −14°F and reads 3°F warmer. The Farms is the high one: 609 feet and 30 feet above its floor, with a low ridge through the middle and the bend near the War Memorial where lakefront homes face east. The map plans it at −14°F, and it reads 4°F warmer than Warren on a bloom night, the best spring reading of any named place we checked. Mind the note above and plan Farms yards for −16°F to −17°F. The ridge is where I'd put the earliest bloomers on this whole map: Tomcot apricot (−30°F), Glohaven peach (−25°F), Hardired nectarine (−25°F) and Lapins sweet cherry (−35°F).

The northern Pointes and Harper Woods are the cold corner. Grosse Pointe Shores, split between Wayne and Macomb counties, plans for −15°F (5a) and reads 3°F warmer than Warren at bloom. Grosse Pointe Woods, the only Pointe without lake frontage, plans for −17°F (5a) and still reads 2°F warmer in spring. Harper Woods, along 8 Mile at the Macomb line, plans for −17°F (5a), typical winter −4°F, and reads even with Warren. That's still clear of everything but the fig, just with less margin, so in a low, wet yard boxed in by hedges, lead with the trees that have room to spare: Wolf River (−50°F), Kerr applecrab (−50°F; Kerr and Trailman are the ones if you only plant one tree) and Evans Bali tart cherry (−45°F).

Detroit's east side and the riverfront

Along the river the east side plans for −12°F to −13°F and reads warm in spring: Lafayette Park, Elmwood Park, Rivertown and West Village 4°F warmer than Warren, East Riverfront and Islandview 3°F, Indian Village 2°F. Jefferson Chalmers is the exception: 574 feet, the lowest named place we checked, old marsh around Fox Creek. It plans for −16°F (5a), though it reads 2°F warmer than Warren at bloom. Inland, City Airport plans −11°F with a typical winter of 1°F, Von Steuben −11°F, Pulaski and Gratiot-Findlay −12°F. Elsewhere the flats run cooler: Airport Sub, Mapleridge, Denby and Regent Park plan −14°F and read 1°F colder than Warren, the weakest spring readings on the east side, and East English Village plans −16°F.

Core Orchards put about 300 Honeycrisp trees on Lenox Street near Dickerson and Mack in 2018, the city's first u-pick apple orchard. For a riverfront yard, go for early bloomers like Siberian C peach (−35°F) and Debbie's Gold apricot (−45°F); on the flats from Airport Sub to Denby, put apples and bush fruit first. Across the river, Windsor's Riverside neighborhood reads 2°F warmer than Warren at bloom.

Spring frost and bloom around Lake St. Clair

With winter cleared, the bloom nights decide your crop. NOAA's 1991 to 2020 frost dates put the median last 32°F in spring at April 16 at the Detroit City Airport station, with the first in fall October 31, a 193-day frost-free season. At the Grosse Pointe Farms station it's April 23 and October 24 (181 days), and at Windsor Riverside April 24 and October 29 (184 days). The Mount Clemens station at Selfridge, on low ground just north of the map, has the shortest season, April 29 to October 22 (169 days).

Open blossoms start dying near 28°F (MSU puts apples from pink through post-bloom at 10 percent kill at 28°F and 90 percent at 25°F). The median last 28°F comes April 6 at City Airport, April 7 at Grosse Pointe Farms, April 12 at Windsor Riverside and April 21 at Selfridge. One spring in ten, the last 32°F comes as late as May 1 at City Airport, May 13 at the Farms and May 22 at Selfridge.

Those dates don't simply back up the spring layer. The map reads the Farms 4°F warmer than Warren on a still bloom night, yet the Farms station's last 32°F runs a week behind City Airport's, though its last 28°F comes within a day of it. The spring layer ranks ground on calm, clear nights; frost dates count every frost, including windy and cloudy nights when that pattern flattens. Use the layer to rank spots on your lot, and the station dates for timing.

Don't count on the lake to hold bloom back the way Lake Michigan does for its fruit belt; that takes big, deep water that stays cold into spring, and we haven't found a local study of bloom timing on this shore. Town ground pushes the other way, since trees in built-up lots tend to bloom earlier. MSU Extension's May 12, 2026 Southeast Michigan update had the region about 10 days ahead of normal, with Northern Spy and the cooler sites still blooming after most apples had reached petal fall. Southeast Michigan peaches lost crop that year to late January cold and two April frosts in the 20s°F, worst in advanced bloom and on low-lying ground.

So put the early bloomers (apricots first, then peaches, nectarines, sweet cherries and Japanese plums) on the warm spring ground: the lakefront, the riverfront, the Farms ridge, the higher blocks in Mount Clemens. A south wall is warmest in winter but brings bloom on earliest, right into frost season. Apples, haskap and bush fruit go on the colder flats and river bottoms, since only about 15 percent of apple blossoms need to set for a crop, according to the University of Minnesota. Keep pears off the lowest ground. Through bloom, mow short, don't till, and water a day or two before a forecast frost; moist, bare soil gives back more heat at night. Frost cloth of 0.5, 0.9 and 1.5 ounces per square yard gains about 4°F, 6°F and 8°F on a still night, by Alabama Extension's figures.

What the weather records say

NOAA station records here go back to 1890. The coldest reading on any of them is −24°F at the Mount Clemens station (Selfridge) on February 10, 1912. On January 19, 1994 the Windsor airport station read −20°F, Windsor Riverside −18°F, and Detroit City Airport and Grosse Pointe Farms −17°F, all their records. The big cold snaps don't always hit the same place hardest: in January 1984 the Windsor airport station read −17°F while Grosse Pointe Farms read −11°F and Mount Clemens −7°F.

USDA's 2023 map works from the average of each winter's coldest night, and an MSU Extension expert told a St. Clair Shores gardener in 2024 that the city is zone 6b. Our typical winter numbers are that kind of average, from −4°F at Harper Woods to 1°F at City Airport. Our MFTC zones read about a full zone colder because they plan for the bad night: St. Clair Shores plans −14°F against a typical winter of −1°F, a 13°F gap that's right in line with NOAA station records, where the worst night in about 30 winters runs a median 13°F below a station's average winter low.

What you can grow here

Every plant we sell except the Chicago Hardy Fig has come through −20°F or colder, and the coldest named place on this map plans for −17°F. So pick by your spring ground, your soil and what you like to eat.

The riverfront, the east side's high ground and Warren: −11°F to −13°F

The riverfront reads 2°F to 4°F warmer than Warren at bloom, so this is the place for the tender and early stuff: Blushingstar peach (it came through −25°F at our place on January 13, 2024 without damage), Contender and Siberian C peaches, Westcot and Harlayne apricots, Fantasia nectarine (−20°F), Bing (−20°F) and Stella (−25°F) sweet cherries, Shiro (−30°F) and Santa Rosa (−20°F) plums and Montana Trial Persimmon (−25°F). The Chicago Hardy Fig (−10°F) is worth a try here, within a few feet of a south or west wall.

Most of the suburbs and the southern Pointes: −13°F to −15°F

Apples: Honeycrisp, Golden Russet (−40°F), Ashmead's Kernel (−35°F), Liberty (−35°F) and Zestar!® (−40°F). Pears for the higher, open lots: Seckel (−35°F) and Harrow Sweet (−30°F). Plums: Italian and Stanley (−30°F). Tart cherries: Montmorency and Balaton (−35°F). Grapes: Concord (−30°F) and Marquette (−35°F), though grapes forgive spring frost less than tree fruit does. The fig is worth a try only where the map reads −15°F or warmer, on a south wall.

The cold corner and the river bottoms: −15°F to −17°F

Harper Woods, Cornerstone Village, Grosse Pointe Woods and Shores, East English Village, Jefferson Chalmers, the Clinton River bottoms, and the Farms if you go by its station. Everything above but the fig still clears. On low, flat ground, put apples and bush fruit first: Northern Spy, Haralson (−45°F) and Wolf River apples, Kerr and Chestnut (−50°F) applecrabs, Honeyberry, Red Lake and Consort (−50°F) currants, Hinnomaki Red gooseberry (−40°F) and Nova raspberry (−50°F). Pears, apricots and sweet cherries only on the highest, best-drained spot you have.

Soil, roots, sun and pests

On most of this map the soil is a bigger worry than the cold. It's lake plain clay, and NRCS describes the lake plain flats as well drained to somewhat poorly drained, with a seasonal high water table 10 to 39 inches down. Dig a hole 2 feet deep, fill it, let it drain and fill it again; if the second fill drains in under 10 hours, you're well drained, and if not, plant on the highest part of the yard. 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 damage. Give fruit trees at least 6 hours of direct sun, 8 to 10 if you can. MSU Extension's 2026 Southeast Michigan reports tracked codling moth, oriental fruit moth, plum curculio and San Jose scale, plus apple scab, fire blight and brown rot. Check our pollination maps for pollenizer pairs that bloom together.

Fruit history here

The French farmed this shore on ribbon farms about 250 feet wide and up to 3 miles long, with orchards of apple and pear trees behind the houses, said to have been grown from seed brought from France. By the early 1800s the Grosse Pointes were known above all for cherries, and settlers found the clay under the swampy land good for big fruit trees. The orchards gave way to subdivisions as the Pointes became a resort and then a commuter suburb.

Questions people ask

What growing zone is St. Clair Shores?

Our map plans St. Clair Shores for −14°F, MFTC zone 5b, with a typical winter of −1°F. An MSU Extension expert told a St. Clair Shores gardener in 2024 that the city is USDA zone 6b. USDA's zones are built on the average winter and ours on the bad night we plan for, so ours read about a full zone colder.

When is the last frost in Grosse Pointe?

At NOAA's Grosse Pointe Farms station the median last 32°F is April 23 and the last 28°F April 7 (1991 to 2020), and one spring in ten the last 32°F comes as late as May 13. The Detroit City Airport station, inland, runs about a week earlier, with a median last 32°F of April 16.

Can you grow peaches in Metro Detroit?

Yes. Every peach we sell clears this map's planning lows (−11°F to −17°F at named places), and Siberian C has come through −35°F. The risk is the crop: Southeast Michigan peaches lost crop in 2026 to late January cold and two April frosts in the 20s°F, worst on low ground. Plant them on the lakefront, the riverfront or the Grosse Pointe Farms ridge, where the spring layer reads 3°F to 4°F warmer than Warren.

Does Lake St. Clair freeze, and does it keep the shore warmer?

It's usually ice covered by the end of January and free of ice in March, according to NOAA's Great Lakes lab. At an average depth of 11 feet it stores little heat, so the lakefront towns plan about the same as the inland suburbs (−14°F at both St. Clair Shores and Roseville). The map shows the shore pulling ahead on still spring nights, 3°F to 4°F warmer than Warren.

What fruit trees grow in Macomb County?

On this map's part of Macomb, from Warren and Sterling Heights to St. Clair Shores and Mount Clemens, named places plan for −13°F to −16°F, MFTC zones 5a and 5b, and everything we sell except the Chicago Hardy Fig has come through −20°F or colder. Put early bloomers near the lake or on higher ground, and apples and bush fruit in the Clinton River bottoms.

Where are the coldest spots around the Grosse Pointes?

Inland, on the low ground behind the northern Pointes: Harper Woods, Cornerstone Village and Grosse Pointe Woods plan for −17°F, all MFTC zone 5a. Grosse Pointe Farms reads −14°F on the map, but NOAA's station there has a 30-year number of −16°F and has hit −17°F twice, so plan the Farms for −16°F to −17°F.

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.