Fruit Trees for Milwaukee, Waukesha and the Lake Michigan Shore, Wisconsin

In the cold snap at the end of January 2019, NOAA's Brookfield station, down by the Fox River at the city's treatment plant, read −33°F, colder than Hartford and Slinger on the high ground to the north. South Milwaukee's station, on the Lake Michigan shore, bottomed out at −22°F. That 11°F spread is what fruit trees for Milwaukee, Waukesha and the Lake Michigan shore come down to: warm bluffs over big water, cold river valleys, and colder bottoms and lake basins out on the lower Fox and in Lake Country.

The map runs from Milwaukee County west to Delafield and Mukwonago, north to Mequon and Germantown, and south through Racine County to Burlington. 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 at any spot is its 30-year planning low, the bad winter night we'd plan a tree around. It leans cautious: a safe number to plan for, not a forecast or the record. The MFTC zone is that number in half zones. The typical winter is an average year's coldest night, the kind of number USDA's map is built on. The spring layer reads each spot against downtown Milwaukee on a still, clear night at bloom, with the terrain at full strength, so two spots under a mile apart can match on the winter number and sit 13°F apart at bloom.

The middle of the growing ground plans for −23°F, the coldest 5 percent for −28°F or colder and the warmest 5 percent for −20°F or warmer. Downtown Milwaukee, the reference, plans for −21°F (MFTC 4b, typical winter −9°F). The warm end is the lake bluffs, down to Ives on the Racine County shore at −17°F, the warmest named place on the map. The cold end is the lower Fox and the Lake Country basins: Lyons, west of Burlington, plans for −29°F, the coldest named place on the map, and Okauchee Lake −28°F. And a planning low isn't the coldest a spot can get: Mitchell Airport's own is −21°F and it read −26°F in February 1996, and Brookfield's is −26°F against its −33°F in 2019.

Why the map looks the way it does

The map is a glacial ramp climbing west from Lake Michigan, 577 feet above sea level, to the Kettle Moraine, where Lapham Peak tops out at 1,233 feet and Holy Hill at about 1,350. The Milwaukee, Menomonee, Kinnickinnic and Root rivers drain east to the lake, while the Fox rises in the Halbach Swamp near Colgate and runs south past Brookfield, Waukesha and Burlington toward the Illinois River. The planning low drops about 10°F across the map, but height isn't what does it. Distance from the lake, and how well a spot sheds its cold air, do.

Lake Michigan is the big warm sink. It averages 279 feet deep, and on winter days with the air in the teens and 20s °F the water off Milwaukee can still sit in the mid 30s °F. Illinois State Water Survey researchers put the lake's lift to mean winter lows at about 7.2°F near its shore. Over 79 winters Germantown has run a median 5°F colder on the year's coldest night than Mitchell, which sits about 3 miles from the lake, and Burlington runs 6°F colder than South Milwaukee's lakeshore station. The help fades within a few miles, and the deepest outbreaks can swamp it: in the February 3, 1996 cold snap Port Washington, right on the lake, read −29°F, the same as Oconomowoc and Hartford.

Along the shore the bluffs, 70 to 140 feet high from Shorewood north, add a thermal belt. On a still night cold air slides off the bluff tops into the ravines and river mouths, and the high ground sits in milder air; Shorewood, 100 feet above its floor, reads 7°F warmer than downtown at bloom. The river valleys run the other way. The Menomonee Valley, an old marsh drained and filled for stockyards and industry, sits right on its floor at 584 feet and plans for −22°F, a degree colder than the Third Ward. Town heat and the lake both help the core: in the January 30, 1951 cold snap the old Weather Bureau city station read −19°F while Mitchell read −24°F.

Inland, the cold collects along the rivers and in the kettles. NOAA's station at Boerner Botanical Gardens in Whitnall Park, Hales Corners, runs a median 6°F colder than Mitchell, 6 miles away, and has the latest median last spring frost of any NOAA station on or near the map, May 10. We haven't found a published explanation. The 640-acre park, with its gardens, bog walk and old sugar maples, sits in the upper Root River valley away from the lake and downtown, the kind of ground that cools hard on a still night. Brookfield's plant sits by the Fox River at 830 feet, about 50 feet below the middle of town, and the map reads −26°F there against −21°F up in town. West of Waukesha the Kettle Moraine's kettles, 3 to 200 feet deep, are closed basins, and cold air fills a closed basin to its lowest notch before it spills out. The kettle lakes freeze hard enough to drive on, so they don't help in winter. Pewaukee Lake averages 15 feet deep and Big Muskego 3 feet, and as the Wisconsin State Climatology Office puts it, lakes shelter their shores only while they're relatively free of ice.

The hills between them run the other way. Lapham Peak, 300 feet above its floor, reads 12°F warmer than downtown at bloom, the warmest spring reading of any named place on the map, while Hilburn, a hamlet on a river bottom near East Troy, reads 11°F colder, the coldest. That's the clear, calm night pattern, the kind of night that does the damage at bloom. Wind or a deep arctic air mass flattens it. Snow cover chills the air above it, and Cold Sunday, January 17, 1982, came over fresh snow.

Downtown Milwaukee, the East Side and Bay View

Downtown sits where the Milwaukee, Menomonee and Kinnickinnic rivers meet, at 588 feet, and plans for −21°F to −22°F (MFTC 4b, typical winter −9°F to −10°F); within 3 miles the floor plans for −23°F and the benches −20°F. The East Side has some of the best fruit ground in the city by the spring numbers. Steep bluffs start about a mile north of downtown, and the high neighborhoods sit 70 to 100 feet above their floor: Yankee Hill, in downtown's East Town, and the Historic Water Tower Neighborhood read 9°F warmer than downtown at bloom and Northpoint 8°F, and the Upper East Side and Downer Woods plan for −19°F to −20°F (MFTC 5a). Harambee, on the ridge that holds the city's highest residential ground, reads 7°F warmer. That's where an apricot or a sweet cherry has its best shot in Milwaukee.

The valleys are the cold side: Piggsville and Miller Valley plan for −23°F with bloom nights 3°F to 4°F colder than downtown. Bay View, on the shore south of the harbor, plans for −20°F and reads 2°F warmer. On the South Side, the Town of Lake, by Mitchell Airport, and Goldman Park, 90 to 110 feet above their floor, plan for −18°F to −19°F.

Shorewood, Whitefish Bay, Glendale and Mequon

Shorewood, 100 feet above its floor on the bluffs, plans for −20°F (MFTC 5a, typical winter −8°F) and reads 7°F warmer than downtown at bloom. Whitefish Bay and Fox Point plan for −20°F and read about even with downtown, and Bayside plans for −21°F and reads 4°F warmer. A few miles inland it runs colder: Glendale, on the Milwaukee River, and Brown Deer plan for −22°F and read 2°F to 3°F colder, and River Hills, right at its local floor, plans for −22°F and reads 8°F colder.

Mequon has both kinds of ground. Thiensville and the river bottom plan for −23°F (MFTC 4b) with bloom nights 3°F to 4°F colder than downtown. Toward the lake, Beechwood Farms and Pioneer Preserve, 110 feet above their floor, plan for −19°F, and Solar Heights, on a bench west of the river, reads 2°F warmer than downtown. Barthel Fruit Farm, a fourth-generation family farm, grows apples and strawberries in Mequon. Cedarburg, where the Wisconsin Ledge wine country begins, plans for −20°F. North of the map toward West Bend and Hartford, the Fond du Lac, West Bend and Kettle Moraine map covers you.

Wauwatosa, West Allis and the northwest side

The Menomonee River runs right through downtown Wauwatosa. Tosa Village, on the valley floor, plans for −22°F (MFTC 4b, typical winter −11°F) and reads 6°F colder than downtown Milwaukee at bloom, while Quarry Heights, on the slope under a mile east, reads 7°F warmer: 13°F apart at bloom on the same winter number. Washington Highlands, the 1916 planned district, sits on a drainage line at −22°F and reads 3°F colder. Higher up, Mayfair Park, out by Highway 100, plans for −20°F.

On Milwaukee's northwest side, Enderis Park and Lenox Heights, 110 to 120 feet above their floor, plan for −18°F (MFTC 5a), among the warmest ground this far from the lake, while Granville's Little Menomonee Parkway, on its floor, plans for −24°F. West Allis sits about 60 to 70 feet above its floor and plans for −20°F (typical winter −10°F), even with downtown at bloom, while Greenfield Park, on low ground on the west side, plans for −22°F with bloom nights 3°F colder.

Cudahy, South Milwaukee, Oak Creek and the Racine County shore

South of the harbor the bluffs and the warm strip carry on. Cudahy plans for −19°F (MFTC 5a, typical winter −7°F) and Saint Francis −20°F. In South Milwaukee, Historic Grant Park, by the lake, plans for −20°F and reads 3°F warmer than downtown at bloom, and the Lakeshore district −19°F and 7°F warmer. Oak Creek, inland on flatter ground, plans for −20°F but reads 2°F colder at bloom.

In Racine County, Ives, on the shore north of Racine, plans for −17°F, and Crestview reads 6°F warmer than downtown at bloom. Inland the numbers drop: Caledonia's center −20°F, Franksville −21°F, Sturtevant −22°F, Raymond and Union Grove −23°F and Yorkville −24°F, mostly 2°F to 4°F colder at bloom. West Racine and Elmwood Park, on low ground west of the city, plan for −22°F. Apple Holler in Sturtevant grows apples, pears and peaches.

Greenfield, Greendale, Hales Corners and the Root River

The Root River rises in New Berlin and runs southeast through West Allis, Greenfield, Greendale and Franklin. Greenfield plans for −20°F (MFTC 4b, typical winter −10°F) and reads 4°F colder than downtown at bloom. Greendale shows the whole range in one village: the Village Center, the "Originals," sits low, plans for −21°F and reads 5°F colder at bloom, while the M and S sections, 100 to 110 feet up on the east side, plan for −18°F and read 2°F warmer.

Hales Corners is the cold pocket. The village plans for −23°F with a typical winter of −13°F, 4°F colder than downtown's typical winter even though the planning lows are only 2°F apart, and Whitnall Park's floor reads 7°F colder than downtown at bloom. Franklin, on higher, flatter ground, plans for −20°F and reads 3°F colder. New Berlin sits high, 90 feet above its floor at 918 feet, and plans for −20°F (MFTC 4b) with bloom nights 2°F warmer than downtown; Prospect, a hamlet on a hillside about 3 miles southwest, reads 8°F warmer.

Brookfield, Elm Grove, Menomonee Falls and Germantown

Brookfield runs from the Fox River bottom on its west side up onto higher ground. The middle of the city, around the Civic Center at close to 890 feet, plans for −21°F (MFTC 4b, typical winter −9°F); within 3 miles the floor plans for −24°F and the benches −21°F. The bottom is the cold part: the plant station by the river runs a median 4°F colder than Mitchell, and nearby Goerke's Corners plans for −24°F. Elm Grove, down on its valley floor at 745 feet, plans for −22°F and reads 6°F colder at bloom.

Menomonee Falls plans for −24°F, with its Village Centre reading 3°F warmer than downtown at bloom and Ravenwoods 4°F colder. Germantown, near where the Menomonee rises, sits on a river bottom at −25°F (typical winter −12°F) with bloom nights 5°F colder. Higher ground is kinder in spring: NOAA's Richfield station, at 1,064 feet and nearly 200 feet above Germantown's plant, has its median last 28°F on April 15 against Germantown's April 24, and Meeker, on a hillside 140 feet up, reads 7°F warmer than downtown at bloom. Sussex plans for −25°F, and Colgate, by the swamp where the Fox rises, −25°F (MFTC 4a).

Waukesha, Pewaukee and Lake Country

Waukesha sits right on the Fox floor at 816 feet and plans for −25°F (MFTC 4a, typical winter −12°F), with bloom nights 3°F colder than downtown Milwaukee; within 3 miles the floor plans for −25°F and the benches −22°F. The higher ground south of downtown is better: Seitz Estates, on a bench 140 feet up, plans for −22°F and reads 7°F warmer than downtown at bloom, while Fox Lake Village, on the river bottom southwest of the city, plans for −25°F with bloom nights 6°F colder.

In Lake Country proper, Pewaukee village, on Pewaukee Lake, plans for −24°F and Rocky Point, on low ground west of the village, −26°F, while the City of Pewaukee's bench ground, 110 feet up, plans for −21°F and reads 5°F warmer than downtown at bloom. Delafield plans for −25°F; Hills of Delafield, on a hillside 110 feet up, −24°F with bloom nights 6°F warmer, and Carriage Hills of Delafield, on the floor, reads 7°F colder. Lapham Peak, named for Increase Lapham, who took weather observations there and helped found the U.S. Weather Bureau, plans for −22°F. The low ground around the lakes is the cold part: Hartland plans for −26°F, Nashotah −25°F, North Lake −27°F, Okauchee Lake −28°F with bloom nights 7°F colder, and Islandwood, just north of Okauchee Lake village, −29°F. South toward Mukwonago (−26°F), Genesee Depot plans for −26°F, North Prairie −27°F and Eagleville −29°F.

Muskego, Waterford, Burlington and the lower Fox

South of Big Bend the Fox runs through the 1,200-acre waterway behind Waterford's dam and the Tichigan Lake chain, past Rochester to Burlington, where the White River joins. Muskego, on a toe slope by Big and Little Muskego lakes, plans for −23°F (MFTC 4b) and Wind Lake −23°F. Downriver it runs colder: Tichigan −24°F, Waterford −27°F, and Rochester, on the river bottom, −26°F with bloom nights 6°F colder. Burlington, on its river bottom at 765 feet, anchors the coldest stretch of the map: it plans for −28°F (MFTC 4a, typical winter −14°F) with bloom nights 4°F colder; within 3 miles the floor plans for −28°F and the benches −26°F. Honey Lake and Lyons plan for −29°F. The slopes are the escape: Bohners Lake, 70 feet above its floor, plans for −28°F but reads 3°F warmer than downtown at bloom, and Mount Tom, the hill southeast of Burlington, 7°F warmer. West toward the Rock River, see the Janesville, Beloit and Rock River map.

Spring frost and bloom by the lake and inland

The lake works on spring two ways. By day it holds bloom back. The water off Milwaukee is only in the upper 30s °F to about 40°F in spring and often stays near 40°F into mid to late May. On light-wind afternoons the lake breeze pushes that chill 5 to 15 miles inland, mostly March through July, and on April days when the lakefront tops out in the upper 30s °F, Waukesha can hit 50°F to 55°F. Cool afternoons slow the buds, so lakeshore trees open later, after more of the frost season is gone. By night the shore stays milder, and the spring layer shows it.

NOAA's 1991 to 2020 medians put the last 32°F of spring at April 14 at Racine's lakeside plant, April 23 at Mitchell, April 25 at Waukesha, May 4 at Germantown, Burlington and Union Grove, and May 10 at Whitnall Park. The last 28°F comes April 4 at Mitchell but April 24 at Whitnall Park and Germantown. One spring in ten the last 32°F comes as late as May 10 at Mitchell and May 22 at Whitnall Park and Burlington. The frost-free season runs 181 days at Mitchell but 153 at Whitnall Park.

The delay has saved crops. After the May 14 to 15, 2016 freeze, apples and grapes were damaged across central and southern Wisconsin, while orchards and vineyards near Lake Michigan reported minimal damage because the lake had kept their bloom later. It isn't a guarantee. In the record-warm start to April 2021, apples at Barthel Fruit Farm in Mequon were two weeks ahead and past green tip by April 13, and the grower figured on about 10 percent loss at 28°F and about 90 percent at 20°F.

So site comes first. Open blossoms of nearly every tree fruit start dying near 28°F, but only about 15 percent of apple blossoms need to set for a crop, sweet cherries can lose half their flowers and still carry a full one, and open haskap flowers take 19°F. Put apricots, peaches and sweet cherries on the bluffs or on hills and benches that read warm at bloom, and apples, haskap and bush fruit in the colder spots. Don't run a hedge across the slope below your trees; it backs cold air up into them. Fall cuts the same way: the first 28°F of fall comes around November 6 at Mitchell but October 14 at Germantown and Whitnall Park, so in the colder towns taper water from mid-August.

What the weather records say

Milwaukee's record low is −26°F at Mitchell Airport, the official station, set on Cold Sunday, January 17, 1982 and matched February 3, 1996; Mitchell's average coldest night of the year is −11°F. Germantown's −40°F on January 11, 1982 is the coldest NOAA reading on the map, the same date Racine's lakeside plant hit −31°F, its coldest in 122 years. Brookfield reached −33°F on January 30, 2019 with only 18 years on file. Waukesha's record over 102 years is −28°F. The lake splits fall freezes too: in mid-October 2026 the inland counties got a freeze warning for lows to 28°F and the lakeshore counties a frost advisory for 30°F.

USDA's 2023 map moved Milwaukee and the shoreline into zone 6a (an average extreme of −10°F to −5°F), up from 5b, and most of inland southeastern Wisconsin from 5a to 5b. That map is built on the average winter's coldest night. On the bad night we plan for, downtown is MFTC 4b, most bluff suburbs 5a, and Waukesha, Burlington and the Lake Country basins 4a.

What you can grow here

The lake bluffs and warm city blocks, −17°F to −21°F (the bluff suburbs, the East Side, Bay View, West Allis, Greenfield, Franklin, New Berlin, central Brookfield and the Racine County shore). Plan for −21°F. Apples: Liberty, Enterprise and Northern Spy (−30°F), Honeycrisp (−45°F). Pears: Harrow Sweet and Ubileen (−30°F). Plums: Stanley (−30°F), Italian (−35°F). Cherry: Rainier (−30°F). Peaches: Contender and Veteran (−30°F), Blushingstar (−25°F). Apricot: Harlayne (−30°F), bluffs only. Expect some lost peach crops: UW Extension puts the fruit bud kill point at −15°F.

Inland suburbs and the river towns, −22°F to −25°F (Wauwatosa, Glendale, Mequon, Hales Corners, Menomonee Falls, Germantown, Muskego, Union Grove, Waukesha, Pewaukee and Delafield). Plan for −25°F. Apples: Zestar!® and Cortland (−40°F), Snowsweet® (−45°F), William's Pride (−35°F). Pears: Luscious and Summercrisp (−40°F). Plums: Toka (−45°F) and Superior (−35°F); Toka is a good pollenizer for Superior. Cherries: Lapins and Black Gold (−35°F), Meteor tart (−40°F). Peach: Siberian C (−35°F), the hardiest peach we think is out there. Apricot: Westcot (−45°F), on ground that reads warm at bloom. Grapes: Frontenac (−35°F) and La Crescent (−40°F), kinds the Wisconsin Ledge growers plant.

The lower Fox and the Lake Country basins, −26°F to −29°F (Burlington, Waterford, Rochester, Lyons, Hartland, Okauchee, North Lake, North Prairie, Eagleville and Mukwonago). Plan for −29°F. Apples: Haralson and Wolf River (−45°F), Northfield Beauty (−40°F), Wealthy (−50°F). Applecrabs: Kerr and Centennial (−50°F); Ed Schultz saw zero winter injury on Centennial after a winter that hit −47°F. Plums: Toka (−45°F) and Pipestone (−40°F). Cherries: Evan's Bali (−45°F) and Juliet (−50°F). Apricot: Debbie's Gold (−50°F), on the warm slopes. Bush fruit: Honeyberry and Montana Black Currant (−50°F), Pixwell gooseberry and Boyne raspberry (−40°F).

Apple scab is the worst apple disease in Wisconsin, so the scab-resistant kinds (Liberty, Enterprise, William's Pride, Wolf River and Northfield Beauty) earn their keep here; fire blight, codling moth, apple maggot and plum curculio are the other main problems. UW Extension's rootstocks for southern Wisconsin run B.9, M.9, G.11, G.41, M.26, G.935, G.30 and M.7 for apples (M.9 and M.26 are very susceptible to fire blight), OH x F for pears and Gisela or Krymsk 5 for sweet cherries. Wisconsin's snowless 2024-25 winter left damage just below the graft union, so mulch and hold snow over the roots on windswept or plowed lots. Much of the metro is clay over limy till, with a perched water table 2 to 3.5 feet down in the common Ozaukee soils, and fruit trees won't grow with wet feet, so test drainage and plant on a rise if it fails. UW wants a second apple within 200 yards for pollen, and flowering crabapples count; Gravenstein and the other triploids can't pollenize, so don't count on one as another tree's partner. See our pollination maps, and run any spot through the cold hardiness calculator.

Fruit history here

Settlers' New York and New England fruit often failed here; the Wisconsin Fruit Growers Association formed in 1854, and late-1800s trial orchards seeded the state's commercial districts. A 1936 state survey of old apple trees heard of a Racine orchard still bearing 92 years after its 1844 planting, and of 86-year-old trees in West Allis. Weston's Antique Apples in New Berlin went on the National Register in 2006; sources differ on its start and size (the city says the orchards began bearing in 1944 with over 90 varieties; Edible Milwaukee says they were planted in 1935 and now hold 167, Autumn Strawberry and Cox Orange Pippin among them). U-picks today include Barthel and Roesch in Mequon, Rim's Edge in Germantown, Peck & Bushel in Colgate, The Elegant Farmer in Mukwonago, and Apple Holler and Klee's in Racine County.

Questions people ask

What growing zone is Milwaukee?

USDA's 2023 map puts Milwaukee in zone 6a, built on the average winter's coldest night. On the bad night we plan for, downtown Milwaukee is −21°F, MFTC zone 4b, and bluff suburbs like Cudahy and Shorewood plan for −19°F to −20°F (5a).

When is the last frost in Milwaukee?

At Mitchell Airport the median last 32°F frost is April 23 (1991 to 2020), and one spring in ten it comes as late as May 10. Inland it's later: April 25 at Waukesha, May 4 at Germantown and Burlington, and May 10 at Whitnall Park in Hales Corners.

Can you grow peaches in Milwaukee?

Yes, hardy ones on the right ground. Siberian C has come through −35°F and Contender and Veteran −30°F, which clears the lakeshore's −17°F to −21°F. UW Extension says peach fruit buds die below −15°F, so expect to lose some crops in hard winters.

Does Lake Michigan protect fruit trees from frost?

Near the shore, mostly. Its cold spring water holds bloom back, and lakeshore orchards came through the May 2016 freeze with minimal damage. The help fades within a few miles, and in a record-warm April like 2021 even Mequon's apples were two weeks ahead and exposed.

Where is the coldest spot near Milwaukee?

Germantown's NOAA station holds the area's record, −40°F on January 11, 1982, and Brookfield's Fox River plant read −33°F in January 2019. On the map, the lower Fox and the Lake Country basins plan coldest, −28°F to −29°F around Burlington, Lyons and Okauchee Lake.

What zone is Waukesha, Wisconsin?

Waukesha sits on the Fox River floor and plans for −25°F, MFTC zone 4a, with a typical winter low of −12°F. USDA's 2023 map puts most of inland southeastern Wisconsin in 5b, but that's based on an average winter, and ours is the bad night we plan for.

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.