Fruit Trees for Springfield, Chatham, Sherman and Rochester, Illinois

In April 2016 a warm spell got central Illinois growing early, then a hard freeze took the overnight low to around 25°F. Afterward John Fulton, the county Extension director for Logan, Menard and Sangamon counties, noted that plants sheltered by houses showed little visible damage. That's the right place to start with fruit trees for Springfield, Chatham, Sherman and Rochester. Nearly everything we sell has come through colder nights than this map plans for. What decides things here is where the cold settles on a still night at bloom.

The map covers Sangamon County and its edges, from Petersburg, Athens and Elkhart in the north to Auburn, Pawnee and Kincaid in the south. 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

Click anywhere and you get four readings. The planning low is the night to plan a tree around, the same 30-year number our cold hardiness calculator gives, fit to NOAA station records since the 1995-96 winter with a small adjustment for the ground at your spot. It's a safe number, not a record. The MFTC zone sorts it into half zones. The typical winter is an ordinary year's coldest night, the average USDA's zones are built on. The spring reading compares your spot with downtown Springfield on a calm, clear night at bloom.

Downtown Springfield plans for −18°F, MFTC zone 5a, with a typical winter of −5°F, and the county barely strays from that. Half the growing ground plans between −21°F and −20°F, and nine tenths falls between −23°F and −18°F. The mild end is Springfield's south side, where Iles and Southern View plan for −17°F; the cold end is north of town, where North Wind (just south of Cantrall) and Van Wood (west of Williamsville) plan for −23°F. Every place we checked lands in 4b or 5a, and the line between them, −20°F, runs through the middle of the county. Spring spreads wider, from 2°F warmer than downtown to 6°F colder.

Why the map looks the way it does

This is till plain, glacial till under 5 to 15 ft of loess, and across the Springfield Plain the relief generally runs no more than 20 ft. The 1912 county geology put the whole county between about 720 ft in the southwest and about 490 ft where the Sangamon River leaves it. The Sangamon, with its South Fork, Sugar Creek and Spring Creek, does all the draining, bending along the north side of Springfield and heading northwest past Petersburg. The 1912 survey called the slopes along those streams hilly, broken and well drained. Between them the upland is so level that cold made over it on a clear night has almost nowhere to go. The biggest relief is the bluff country at Petersburg and Elkhart Hill.

Winter cold here comes in big air masses. Arctic air pours in behind a front and covers Central Illinois at once, and the coldest mornings follow, once the sky clears and the wind drops. With nothing to block it and no deep valley to fill, the stations mostly agree. NOAA station records turn up no long-record pair here whose coldest readings of the year differ by a median of 3°F or more, and the order reshuffles from snap to snap: in January 1977 Mason City, just north of the map, was coldest at −24°F, while in January 1999 Lincoln hit −25°F and Virden, on high ground just south of the map, read −11°F.

What pattern there is runs two ways. The north and northeast run a little colder, toward Lincoln, whose station holds the area's coldest reading, −34°F on January 15, 1927, while New Berlin and Curran on the high southwest plan for −19°F and −18°F. And town holds heat. Downtown plans for −18°F, while the map reads −22°F at the Capital Airport station north of town, whose own 30-year number (−23°F) runs a bit colder than anything it has recorded since 1995 (−21°F, in January 1999). The map gives built-up ground up to 2.5°F of credit. Some of the gap is the stations, though: NOAA's second Springfield station, with a 30-year number of −16°F, only ran from 2005 to 2016 and missed the 1990s snaps that took the airport to −19°F and −21°F. In town, give a marginal tree a couple of degrees of room.

On a still, clear night the little relief there is starts to count. Around Old Hickory and Rail Meadows, southwest of Sherman, the floor within 3 miles plans for −23°F, the coldest floor around any town or neighborhood we checked, while Old Hickory itself, 70 ft up, plans for −20°F. At Petersburg and Elkhart the ground 100 ft or more above the floor plans for −19°F, against −21°F and −22°F below. The spring layer runs that drainage at full strength. Slopes where cold air slides off toward the river read warmest at bloom: Riverton, Peabody and Old Salem Chautauqua run 2°F warmer than downtown. Creek bottoms read cold, and so does flat upland far from town, which fits ground that makes its own cold and has nowhere to send it. Rochester, Berry, Cotton Hill and Glenarm read 3°F colder, Berlin 4°F colder, and Ellis, east of Pawnee, 6°F colder, the coldest spring reading of any named place we checked. NC State's fruit people figure 3°F to 4°F can separate a full crop from none.

Water doesn't help in winter. Lake Springfield is big (3,965 acres, 27 ft at its deepest), but in January 2026, once nights hit the single digits, most of it iced over within about four days, and a lake shelters its shore only while it's mostly free of ice. Sangchris Lake, the Kincaid power plant's cooling pond, stayed partly open that month, but we haven't found any measurement of what it does for the ground around it.

Downtown Springfield, the south side and the enclaves

The mildest ground on the map is the city. Downtown, on the plain south of the Sangamon, plans for −18°F (5a), and so do Vinegar Hill, the South Town District, West Grand Place, Coleman and East Springfield. Hawthorne Place and Iles plan for −17°F, and so does Southern View, one of the four incorporated enclaves (with Leland Grove, Jerome and Grandview) the city surrounds. At bloom most of these neighborhoods read 1°F colder than the downtown core and Southern View 2°F colder.

Fulton's 2016 note is the town grower's edge: shelter by a house protects bloom. Put the earliest bloomers close to the house, apricots like Goldrich, peaches like Redstar and Glohaven, and Stella sweet cherry. At −17°F to −18°F the city also clears the trees we rate at −20°F with room to spare, Bing cherry, Santa Rosa plum and the Flavortop nectarine among them; give those a south or west wall.

Sherman, Old Hickory and the north side

North of downtown the ground drops toward the Sangamon, and the numbers get colder in winter and better at bloom. Devereux Heights and Streadle, 50 to 60 ft above the floor, plan for −22°F and read 1°F warmer. Sherman, 60 ft above its floor, plans for −21°F (4b) with a typical winter of −7°F and reads 1°F colder at bloom; within 3 miles the floor plans for −22°F and the coldest tenth −23°F. Southwest of the village, Old Hickory (70 ft up) plans for −20°F and reads 1°F warmer, Rail Meadows and Rail Estates (50 ft up) plan for −21°F and −22°F and read even, and Peabody, on a 6 percent slope just south of the village, plans for −22°F and reads 2°F warmer. Off the slopes it gets colder: North Wind, a toe slope 10 ft above its floor, plans for −23°F and reads 4°F colder at bloom.

So the north side trades a couple of degrees of winter for a better bloom night. Every peach we sell clears −23°F, and the warm slopes are the place for apricots like Harlayne, peaches like Contender and sweet cherries like Lapins. Down on the floor and out toward North Wind, lean on apples, haskap and currants.

Riverton, Rochester and the river east of town

Riverton grew up around Judy's Ferry, a Sangamon crossing east of Springfield, and was a coal town too. It sits 50 ft above its floor and plans for −21°F (4b) with a typical winter of −8°F, but at bloom it reads 2°F warmer than downtown, the warmest spring reading of any named place we checked, which fits ground that sheds its cold to the river. Spaulding, next door, plans for −20°F (5a) and reads even. The river bottom below them is another story: within 3 miles the floor plans for −22°F and the coldest tenth −23°F. Riverton's slopes suit Risingstar peach, or Superior plum with Toka, since Toka is a good pollenizer for Superior.

Rochester, about 4 miles east-southeast of Springfield on IL 29, sits low, 556 ft by the map and only 20 ft above its floor, with the South Fork crossing nearby. It plans for −20°F (4b) with a typical winter of −7°F and reads 3°F colder at bloom. Berry, on a river bottom southeast of town, plans for a mild −18°F (5a) but reads 3°F colder at bloom, a good example of winter and spring not lining up. The slopes do better: Cascade, on a 9 percent toe slope to the south, plans for −21°F and reads 1°F warmer. Keep pears and stone fruit on slopes like that. For Decatur and points east, the Champaign, Urbana and Decatur map covers you.

Chatham, Auburn, Pawnee and the south county

Chatham, about 2.8 miles south of Springfield on the original line of Route 66, plans for −19°F (5a) with a typical winter of −6°F and reads even with downtown at bloom. Panther Creek, the subdivision on Dana Spaulding's old market garden tract, plans for −20°F (4b) and reads 2°F colder. The bottoms run frostier: Glenarm, on a creek bottom southeast of Chatham, and Cotton Hill, at 564 ft just above the lake's 560 ft surface, both read 3°F colder. Apple Barn in Chatham grows about 1,400 apple trees in 12 varieties.

South of there it's flat upland farm ground. Auburn plans for −19°F (5a) and reads 2°F colder at bloom, Divernon −21°F (4b) and 1°F colder, Pawnee −20°F (5a, just on the mild side of the line) and 1°F colder. Ellis, east of Pawnee, sits at the edge of the pool with no height at all above its floor and reads 6°F colder, so it's apple and bush fruit ground. Toward Sangchris Lake, Kincaid plans for −20°F (5a) and reads even, and Tovey −19°F and 3°F colder. Pick the spot first and the tree second.

New Berlin, Curran and the high west side

West of Springfield the upland rises toward the county's high corner. New Berlin, founded in 1865 mostly by German immigrants, sits at 653 ft, the highest of the towns, and plans for −19°F (5a) with a typical winter of −6°F. Curran plans for −18°F, Berlin −19°F, and Loami −20°F (5a). The catch is bloom. This is broad, level ground, and Berlin reads 4°F colder than downtown, Bates and Riddle Hill 3°F colder, Curran and New Berlin 2°F colder. A few spots do better: Pleasant Plains, home of the Clayville Historic Site, plans for −20°F (4b) and reads 1°F warmer. On the level fields the winter number carries nearly anything, so choose for bloom: apples like Arkansas Black and Stayman Winesap, haskap and currants, with apricots saved for a rise or a spot by the house.

Petersburg, Athens and Lincoln's New Salem

Most of Petersburg sits on bluffs over the Sangamon, while downtown and the courthouse square sit on the floodplain, at 514 ft by the map the lowest town ground in the box. Downtown plans for −21°F (4b) with a typical winter of −11°F, the coldest typical winter of any town we checked, and reads 1°F colder than downtown Springfield at bloom. The Petersburg station, a mile east of town at 600 ft and on file only since 2015, has a 30-year number of −18°F and bottomed out at −16°F in January 2019. Up top it's flat, and flat means frosty: Hill Top, on the upland west of town, plans for −19°F (5a) but reads 3°F colder at bloom. The best ground is the slope between, like Old Salem Chautauqua's 6 percent slope south of town, which reads 2°F warmer. Lincoln's New Salem, about 2 miles south, sits in a heavily wooded park. On a wooded bluff face, clear the brush below your trees so cold air keeps moving down to the river.

Athens, about 14 miles north of Springfield and 2 miles from the Sangamon, plans for −21°F (4b) and reads even with downtown at bloom. Tice, on the upland toward Petersburg 110 ft above its floor, plans for −18°F (5a). NOAA's Athens station, 4 miles southwest of town, recorded −14°F on January 31, 2004, its coldest in 10 years. North toward Peoria or Bloomington, the Peoria, Bloomington and Normal map is the next one up.

Williamsville, Elkhart and the northeast corner

The northeast corner is the cold end of the county. Williamsville plans for −21°F (4b) and reads 1°F colder at bloom; within 3 miles the floor plans for −22°F. Lake Fork plans for −22°F, and even the warmest tenth of the ground around it plans for −22°F, the coldest surroundings of any village we checked. Elkhart plans for −22°F and reads 3°F colder, but it has the corner's best ground. Elkhart Hill rises 180 ft above the village to a summit at 771 ft (a horse mill stood at its foot around 1822), and the ground 100 ft or more above the floor near the village plans for −19°F, 3°F milder than the flats the cold slides down onto. If you have ground on its slopes, check it on the map and put the early bloomers there.

Spring frost and bloom in the Sangamon Valley

At the Springfield airport station north of town (590 ft), the 1991 to 2020 median last 32°F frost came April 15 and the last 28°F April 4; in the latest year in ten, the last 32°F came May 1. The first 32°F in fall came October 13, for a 180-day season. The Lincoln station, off the northeast corner, ran later and shorter (April 18, 176 days), and the Virden station, just south of the map at 675 ft, had 194 days with its last 32°F on April 9, on only 17 years of data. Creek bottoms and dead-flat fields read 3°F to 6°F colder than downtown on a still bloom night, so frost hangs on later there. Frost can form while the thermometer 5 ft up still reads 34°F to 35°F, the Illinois State Climatologist's office notes.

The freezes that hurt come after a warm spell. In April 2007 a warm March and an early April freeze gave southern Illinois its worst fruit damage in about half a century and wrote off the state's peach crop. After the April 2016 freeze Fulton gave the thresholds: apples at full bloom lose about 10 percent of their blossoms at 28°F, peaches and apricots in early fruit set about 25 percent, it gets worse near 26°F, and below 25°F is generally harmful to anything in bloom. In April 2021, at Eureka north of the map, apples, peaches and pears were already blooming under a freeze warning for the upper 20s°F.

The FAO's frost manual calls site selection the single most important method of frost protection. Put apricots, peaches, sweet cherries and plums like Shiro on ground that reads warm: the slopes falling to the Sangamon, toe slopes like Cascade's, the bluff faces at Petersburg, or close to a house in town. Keep pears off the frosty bottoms, since they bloom early. The bottoms are for apples, and better yet haskap, whose open flowers take 19°F, plus currants and gooseberries. Most fruit can lose half its blossoms and still crop (clustered fruit like cherries and grapes less so), and Minnesota's fruit people figure only about 15 percent of apple blossoms need to set.

On a calm, clear frost night, mow under 2 inches, don't till, and water a day or two ahead; frost cloth helps too. Osage orange hedgerows planted from the 1840s still line central Illinois roads, and a hedge across the low side of a slope backs cold air into the trees above it, so gap it. In fall the first 28°F at the airport comes around October 24, early enough to catch trees that haven't hardened off, so ease off water and nitrogen from mid-August.

What the weather records say

NOAA station records put Springfield's coldest at −24°F on February 13, 1905, in the long airport record. NWS Lincoln says Springfield readings before 1931 came from downtown rooftops and aren't representative of ground level. Lincoln holds the area's coldest on file, −34°F on January 15, 1927, in 108 years. In the area's biggest cold outbreaks since, the airport station read −21°F in January 1977, January 1985, December 1989 and January 1999. In January 2019, the year Illinois set its −38°F state record, Lincoln read −19°F, Petersburg −16°F and the Springfield airport −14°F. The Illinois State Climatologist counts 11 of the 30 winters from 1991 to 2020 in which Springfield fell below −10°F.

USDA's 2023 map puts Springfield in zone 6a, an average coldest night of −10°F to −5°F, according to the Illinois State Climatologist; one news story said 6b, so you'll see both. Illinois Extension notes the 5b/6a line moved from near Springfield up toward Peoria. Our zones read colder, 5a downtown and 4b over about half the growing ground, because USDA maps the average winter and we plan for the bad night.

What you can grow here

Most of our list clears winter anywhere on this map: every peach, apricot and pear we sell, and every sweet cherry but Bing, has come through −25°F or colder, and the coldest place we checked plans for −23°F. So choose by bloom night and site.

Town lots and the mild ground, −17°F to −19°F

Springfield's neighborhoods, Southern View, Chatham, Curran, New Berlin, Auburn, Tovey, Tice and the Petersburg upland. The −20°F trees clear here with room: Bing cherry, Santa Rosa plum, Arctic Glo nectarine and Baldwin apple. Add Glohaven peach, Tomcot apricot, Harrow Sweet pear, Montana Trial Persimmon (−25°F) and Rhodes Heartnut (−25°F). Pears and early bloomers go in town or on a rise, not out on the level west-side fields.

Most of the county, −20°F to −21°F

Rochester, Riverton, Sherman, Pawnee, Divernon, Athens, downtown Petersburg and Williamsville. Anything rated −25°F or colder clears: Blushingstar and PF-24C peaches, Hardired nectarine, Rainier cherry, Stanley plum, Seckel pear, SnowCzar almond and Honeycrisp apple. The −20°F trees just clear the −20°F spots and are worth a try at −21°F on a slope that reads warm. Pears and stone fruit go on the slopes.

The cold end, −22°F to −24°F

Lake Fork, the Elkhart flats, Cantrall, North Wind, Van Wood, Peabody and the river floor near Sherman, where the coldest tenth of the ground around Old Hickory and Rail Meadows plans for −24°F. Everything rated −25°F or colder still clears, and the hardiest give you room: Siberian C peach, Westcot apricot, Evans Bali tart cherry, Bartlett pear on slopes only, Zestar!® apple, Kerr applecrab, Honeyberry (haskap), Red Lake currant and Pixwell gooseberry. The −20°F trees are worth a try here only on slopes that read warm at bloom.

Roots, not wood, are the weak link. Bud 118 apple rootstock has seen near −50°F with no damage under snow at Ed Schultz's farm in Gallatin Gateway, Montana; root damage comes mostly in snowless winters on dry ground, so mulch and keep the soil moist going into winter.

Bob Purvis's site rules from our grower manual fit here: an east-facing slope is ideal, a north slope holds early bloomers back, and the place to plant is on the slope, not the windswept top or the bottom. Montana State University's target is a 4 to 8 percent grade, which here mostly means ground breaking toward the Sangamon and its creeks. The 1912 survey found fruit thriving on the lighter silt loam of those slopes and called the black clay loam of the level prairie poorly drained, so test drainage: dig 2 ft, fill, let it drain, refill, and under 10 hours is well drained. Illinois Times' home fruit guide notes blueberries need the soil acidified here. EF2 tornadoes hit Sherman and north of Pawnee in 2023, so wind is real; a windbreak as tall as the trees and 40 to 60 percent dense helps, if it doesn't cross the low side of your slope. Illinois Extension advises planting bare root trees in spring, just after the soil thaws. For pollenizers, see our pollination maps.

Fruit history here

James B. Spaulding came to Springfield in 1858 and started the city's first nursery, later moving it to Riverton, and the village of Spaulding got its railroad station because of all the stock the nursery shipped. Old ginkgos and cucumber trees from it still stand on Clear Lake Avenue. Milton Spaulding's 5-acre orchard along the Sangamon in Springfield Township had grown to about 15 acres by 1904. Willis J. Spaulding was an orchardist for about 15 years with his brother Lewis Dana before becoming utilities commissioner, and Spaulding Dam carries his name; Dana's market garden tract near Chatham is Panther Creek now. West of town, Adna Phelps, called the county's oldest fruit grower, was the first to bring berries into Springfield in quart boxes, and his son Harry grew fruit on 57 acres there from 1905. Jefferies Orchard, a family business since the 1920s, still makes its own cider.

Questions people ask

What growing zone is Springfield, Illinois?

Downtown Springfield plans for −18°F, MFTC zone 5a, and most of Sangamon County plans for −20°F to −21°F, right on the 4b and 5a line. USDA's 2023 map puts Springfield in zone 6a (an average coldest night of −10°F to −5°F), per the Illinois State Climatologist, though one news story said 6b. USDA's zone comes from the average winter, ours from the bad night we plan for.

When is the last frost in Springfield, Illinois?

At the Springfield airport station north of town, the 1991 to 2020 median last 32°F frost came April 15 and the last 28°F April 4, and in the latest year in ten the last 32°F came May 1. Creek bottoms and flat open fields run 3°F to 6°F colder than downtown on a still bloom night, so they frost later.

Can you grow peaches in Springfield, Illinois?

Yes. Every peach we sell has come through −25°F or colder, and the coldest place we checked plans for −23°F. Spring is the risk: peaches bloom early, and in April 2007 a freeze after a warm March wrote off the state's peach crop. Plant on a slope that drains toward the Sangamon or a creek, or close to the house, and pick Contender, Redstar or Blushingstar.

Where are the frost pockets around Springfield?

The creek and river bottoms and the dead-flat fields far from town. On a still bloom night Rochester, Berry, Cotton Hill and Glenarm read 3°F colder than downtown, Berlin 4°F colder, and Ellis, east of Pawnee, 6°F colder. The slopes facing the Sangamon read warmest: Riverton, Peabody and Old Salem Chautauqua run 2°F warmer than downtown.

Does Lake Springfield freeze over?

Yes. In January 2026 most of the lake froze within a few days once nights dropped into the single digits, leaving open water only at the Island Bay Yacht Club's bubbler and a few spots near the dam. A frozen lake stops sheltering its shore.

How cold does it get in Springfield, Illinois?

NOAA station records put Springfield's coldest at −24°F on February 13, 1905, and Lincoln's at −34°F on January 15, 1927. From 1991 to 2020 Springfield fell below −10°F in 11 of 30 winters, per the Illinois State Climatologist. The airport station's coldest since 1995 is −21°F, in January 1999; the map's planning low there is −22°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.