Fruit Trees for Wenatchee, Cashmere, Leavenworth and Lake Chelan, Washington

On December 30, 1968, NOAA's Leavenworth station read −36°F. The Wenatchee station, 19 miles down the same river and about 500 feet lower, read −19°F, and Chelan, on its lake, −18°F. That's most of the story of fruit trees for Wenatchee, Cashmere, Leavenworth and Lake Chelan: the Columbia shore and Lake Chelan run mild, and the farther up the Wenatchee River you go toward the mountains, the colder the floor gets.

The map covers the Apple Capital country of North Central Washington: the Wenatchee River from Plain down through Leavenworth and Cashmere, the Columbia from Rock Island past Wenatchee and East Wenatchee to Entiat and Chelan Falls, the lower basin of Lake Chelan, and the edge of the Waterville Plateau. 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

Every spot carries a 30-year planning low, the hard winter night we size a tree to, set on the cautious side: a number to plan around, not a forecast of how often that night comes. Its MFTC zone is that low cut into half zones. The typical winter figure is the coldest night of an ordinary year, the kind of average USDA's zones come from. The spring layer is a still, clear night at bloom, read as degrees warmer or colder than downtown Wenatchee.

Half the growing ground plans colder than −16°F and half warmer; the coldest 5 percent sits at −20°F or colder and the warmest 5 percent at −9°F or warmer. Downtown Wenatchee plans for −10°F (MFTC 5b, typical winter 6°F). Entiat, on the Columbia above Rocky Reach Dam, is the warmest named place we checked at −3°F (MFTC 6b). Coles Corner, west of Plain, is the coldest at −21°F (MFTC 4b). Most of what we sell clears the Wenatchee and Lake Chelan end; the list shortens up the valley. On a bloom night the creek bottoms run as much as 9°F colder than downtown and the Chelan shore as much as 11°F warmer.

Why the map looks the way it does

Everything here drains to the Columbia, which runs through the map at about 650 to 710 feet, the lowest ground there is. The Wenatchee River runs 53 miles from Lake Wenatchee (1,873 feet) past Plain, through Tumwater Canyon to Leavenworth (1,168 feet), then past Cashmere (879 feet) to the Columbia just north of Wenatchee. The Wenatchee Mountains wall the city on the south and west. Lake Chelan's lower basin sits near 1,100 feet behind a bedrock ridge, and east of the river the Waterville Plateau climbs past 2,600 feet. Orchards run from about 700 to 3,400 feet.

On a clear, calm winter night the upper Wenatchee valley fills with cold like a bathtub. Leavenworth sits at the foot of Tumwater Canyon near the mouth of Icicle Creek, ringed by mountains 5,000 to 8,000 feet high, and at Peshastin peaks top 2,000 feet within a mile of a floor at 1,034. The station pairs all point one way. Leavenworth 3 S, on the river bottom south of town, runs a median 11°F colder on the year's coldest night than Wenatchee, and 6°F colder than the old Wenatchee 6 SW station, more than 1,000 feet higher in the hills southwest of the city. Plain runs 8°F colder than the Dry Creek station 6 miles away and 1,600 feet up. That's an inversion: the floors make their own cold and keep it, with milder air on the slopes above, and deep snow chills the air further (Leavenworth averages about 90 inches a year, Plain 117). We haven't found a published explanation for just why Leavenworth runs so much colder than Wenatchee.

The plateau is cold another way: it's high, open and snowy. Waterville, at 2,625 feet the highest incorporated town in Washington, averages about 45 inches of snow and runs a median 13°F colder than Chelan, 13 miles away, the widest gap of any station pair on NOAA's list here. NWS Spokane describes shallow domes of cold air forming over the Columbia Basin's snow and piling against the Cascade east slopes, and a NOAA study found the basin's winter cold pools topping out near 3,600 to 4,100 feet above sea level.

The Columbia corridor is the warm strip. The Wenatchee station, on the river bottom at 626 feet, has an average yearly low of 4°F and a 30-year number of −7°F. Pangborn airport, about 600 feet higher on the Douglas County side, has −14°F. The old Experiment Station station, 2 miles from the city station and about 170 feet higher, ran a median 6°F colder over 23 years. We haven't found a published explanation for the city station's warmth. The map plans for −11°F right at that station, 4°F colder than its own number, so on the Wenatchee floor you likely have a bit more room than the map shows.

Above Rocky Reach Dam it's milder still. The map treats Lake Entiat, the dam's reservoir, as big water, and the one station on that shore agrees: Entiat's town station bottomed out at −1°F (January 5, 2004) in its 13 years, while the fish hatchery station up the Entiat valley read −6°F in the same snap and has a record of −16°F. That shore record is short and we haven't found an ice record for the reservoir, so take those numbers as good but not proven.

Lake Chelan, a glacier-cut trough 1,486 feet deep at its deepest, is the documented warm basin. The federal rule that set up the Lake Chelan wine region says the lake stores summer heat and gives it back in fall and winter, and that a ridge east of the lake holds that air in the basin while cold drains off the high Cascades to the north. It counted 89.6 days a year below 32°F at the lake against 102.3 in the Wenatchee Valley and 147.9 in the Methow.

On the spring layer the benches above the Columbia read warm (the East Wenatchee Bench 7°F warmer than downtown, Broadway 10°F), and the creek and river bottoms cold: Telma, Farris, Ardenvoir and Monitor read 8°F to 9°F colder, the coldest spring readings of any named places we checked.

Wenatchee, Sunnyslope, Malaga and Stemilt Hill

Wenatchee sits where the Wenatchee River meets the Columbia. Downtown plans for −10°F (MFTC 5b, typical winter 6°F); the floor within 3 miles plans for −12°F, the benches −11°F and the warmest tenth of the ground −9°F. South Wenatchee, by the Appleyard Terminal, plans for −12°F and reads 5°F colder than downtown at bloom, and Olds Station −12°F and 1°F colder. Across the Wenatchee River, Sunnyslope, on a bench 170 feet up along US 2, plans for −11°F and runs 4°F warmer; West Wenatchee, 230 feet up, −12°F and 5°F warmer. Malaga, downriver, plans for −14°F.

Up the hill, Wenatchee Heights, 1,350 feet above the floor at 2,297 feet, plans for −10°F, and Stemilt Hill, the Mathison family's pear ground since about 1914, plans for −12°F at 2,490 feet. Elevation delays the crop up there: Stemilt's cherry blocks at 2,640 feet and up don't start harvest until August.

In town and on Sunnyslope, almost everything we sell has room. Chicago Hardy Fig (−10°F) sits right at downtown's number, so it's worth a try against a south wall. The apricot that carries the town's name, Wenatchee Moorpark (−30°F), along with Skeena cherry (−30°F) and Glowingstar peach (−25°F), clears by a wide margin; give them the benches that read warm at bloom. South Wenatchee's low ground is for apples like Spartan (−40°F).

East Wenatchee, the Bench and Rock Island

East Wenatchee, on the east bank, plans for −9°F (MFTC 6a, typical winter 7°F) and runs 2°F warmer than downtown Wenatchee at bloom. The East Wenatchee Bench, 260 feet above the floor, plans for −8°F (MFTC 6a) and runs 7°F warmer. Broadway, 410 feet up, plans for −11°F with bloom nights 10°F warmer, and Sunny Hill, 390 feet up, −12°F and 8°F warmer. Pangborn, on the bench country about 4 miles east of Wenatchee, has a 30-year number of −14°F. Downriver, Rock Island, on the river bottom by the old Rock Island Rapids, plans for −13°F and reads 5°F colder at bloom; its old station hit −26°F on January 30, 1937.

The bench is some of the best stone fruit ground on the map. Everything rated −20°F or colder clears it by 10°F or more, Chicago Hardy Fig fits outright, and it reads warm at bloom. Try Perfection apricot (−30°F), Risingstar peach (−25°F), Fantasia nectarine (−20°F) and Early Italian plum (−35°F).

Cashmere, Monitor and Dryden

Cashmere sits on the south bank of the Wenatchee River where Mission Creek comes in. The town plans for −14°F (MFTC 5b, typical winter 3°F) and reads 3°F colder than downtown Wenatchee at bloom; the floor within 3 miles plans for −15°F, the benches −13°F and the warmest tenth of the ground −11°F. Monitor, downstream on the river bottom, plans for −13°F but reads 8°F colder at bloom. Dryden, upstream at the head of the Highline Canal, plans for −18°F (MFTC 5a), and the valley keeps cooling from there.

Cashmere's orchards sit on narrow benches around town, and after the Peshastin Ditch brought water in 1901 they climbed the valley walls. The benches beat the floor by about 2°F in winter. Cashmere grows pears (Bartlett and d'Anjou) alongside apples, and pear buds take heavy damage below 25°F, so put Bartlett (−35°F), Red d'Anjou (−35°F) and Red Sensation Bartlett (−35°F) up on the benches. On the Monitor bottoms, plant apples like Gravenstein (−45°F) and Macoun (−35°F), and haskap.

Leavenworth, Peshastin, Plain and the upper valley

Leavenworth plans for −18°F (MFTC 5a, typical winter 0°F). Its floor within 3 miles plans for −19°F, the benches −16°F and the warmest tenth of the ground −14°F, and the town itself reads 1°F warmer than downtown Wenatchee at bloom. Peshastin plans for −20°F and reads 5°F colder. Chumstick plans for −19°F, Plain −20°F, Winton −19°F, Brief −18°F and Coles Corner −21°F (MFTC 4b). Chiwawa Pines, on a hillside 100 feet up, runs 8°F warmer than downtown at bloom, while Telma and Merritt, in their bottoms, read 8°F to 9°F colder.

The Leavenworth station's 30-year number is −19°F and its coldest since the 1995-96 winter −18°F, but its record is −36°F (December 30, 1968). Plain's 30-year number, −20°F, is colder than anything its station has recorded since 1995 (−18°F, on January 13, 2024); its record is −31°F (February 1, 1950).

Trees rated −25°F fit Leavenworth on paper, but a repeat of 1968 would run 18°F past its planning low, so for trees you want for decades, lean on ones rated −35°F and colder: Haralson (−45°F), Wolf River (−50°F) and Zestar!® (−40°F) apples; Kerr applecrab (−50°F), and if you only plant one tree up here, make it Kerr or Trailman (−55°F); Summercrisp (−45°F) and Flemish Beauty (−40°F) pears on the benches; Black Ice (−40°F) and Mount Royal (−45°F) plums; Evan's Bali tart cherry (−45°F); Westcot apricot (−45°F) on your warmest slope. At Coles Corner, trees rated −20°F are only worth a try.

Entiat, Orondo and the Columbia up to Chelan Falls

Above Rocky Reach Dam, about 7 miles north of Wenatchee, the Columbia backs up into Lake Entiat. Entiat moved to higher ground when the reservoir came (its third townsite opened in 1961). It plans for −3°F (MFTC 6b, typical winter 10°F) and runs 5°F warmer than downtown Wenatchee at bloom; the floor within 3 miles plans for −7°F and the benches −4°F. Orondo, on the east bank, plans for −6°F (MFTC 6a) and runs 4°F warmer, Wagnersburg and Winesap −8°F, and Stayman −10°F, all 6a. In the Entiat valley it cools off fast: Farris plans for −13°F and Ardenvoir −14°F, and both read 8°F to 9°F colder at bloom. Chelan Falls, which grew up on the old road from the lake down to the Columbia, plans for −12°F.

This shore is the warmest ground we checked. Chicago Hardy Fig fits outright at Entiat, Orondo, Wagnersburg, Winesap and Stayman, and the −20°F trees, like Bing cherry, Flavortop nectarine and Javid's Iranian Seedling almond, have 10°F to 17°F to spare. Two hamlets on this stretch are named Winesap and Stayman, and Stayman Winesap (−30°F) fits them easily. Keep the Entiat valley bottoms for apples and bush fruit.

Chelan, Manson and the Lake Chelan Valley

Chelan sits at the southeast tip of the lake where the Chelan River leaves it. The town plans for −13°F (MFTC 5b, typical winter 5°F) and runs 4°F warmer than downtown Wenatchee at bloom; the benches within 3 miles plan for −11°F and the floor −15°F. Manson, on the north shore about 7 miles northwest, plans for −12°F and runs 5°F warmer. Along the shore, Lakeside and Grandview Village plan for −12°F, Sunnybank −12°F with bloom nights 7°F warmer, Hollywood Beach and Shrine Beach −13°F to −14°F, and Greens Landing −12°F with bloom nights 11°F warmer, the best spring reading of any named place we checked.

The Chelan station's coldest since 1995 was −14°F on January 13, 2024, a degree past the town's planning low, so leave a little room. The wine-region rule also notes later bud break around the lake (it credits the nearby mountains), which keeps bloom out of some early frost nights. Around the lake, Lapins (−35°F) and Rainier (−30°F) cherries, Italian plum (−35°F), Harlayne apricot (−30°F) and our grapes, Marquette (−35°F), Frontenac (−35°F) and La Crescent (−40°F), all clear with room. North of here, the Omak, Okanogan and Methow Valley map picks up.

Waterville and the plateau

Waterville, the Douglas County seat near Badger Mountain, plans for −19°F (MFTC 5a, typical winter −5°F), with its floor within 3 miles at −20°F and its benches −18°F; Douglas, east of town, plans for −19°F too. The station's 30-year number is −19°F, its coldest since 1995 −16°F and its record −33°F (December 30, 1968). Plant it like the upper valley, with trees rated −35°F and colder.

Spring frost and bloom in the Wenatchee Valley

Wenatchee has a Red Delicious full bloom record going back to 1922, kept by the weather office through 1993 and by WSU since (full bloom is the day 60 percent of king blossoms are open on the north side of the tree). It averages April 27; the earliest was April 9, 2015, and the latest May 16, 1922, a 37-day spread. NOAA's 1991 to 2020 median last 32°F frost is April 4 at the Wenatchee station, April 9 at Chelan, April 10 at Pangborn, May 2 at Leavenworth and May 21 at Plain, and one year in ten it runs past April 22 at Wenatchee, May 13 at Leavenworth and June 9 at Plain. The last 28°F runs from March 9 at Wenatchee to May 4 at Plain. So on the Columbia an average bloom lands after the frosts, and an early one like 2015's lands in frost season.

A 1979 National Weather Service study of Wenatchee found about 41 percent of April and May nights were clear, calm radiation nights, and 84 percent of those April nights took a key station to 32°F or below. That's what the wind machines are for: one local writer counts them kicking on around 4 or 5 a.m. on roughly 10 to 20 spring mornings a year, pulling the milder air above the inversion down into the trees. In 2008, April 1 to 20 averaged the coldest on record from the Wenatchee area north (NWS Spokane), and growers ran wind machines, water and propane heaters nightly from March 13; USDA still put the cherry loss in Chelan and Douglas counties at only 5 to 10 percent, and full bloom came a week late.

Apricots bloom first and carry the most frost risk, so they get your highest, best-drained slope, and the other stone fruit and pears belong up off the floor too. Apples, haskap and the bush fruit can take lower ground, since a crop needs only about 15 percent of apple blossoms to set and open haskap flowers take 19°F. Michigan State says open blossoms of nearly every tree fruit start dying near 28°F. Frost cloth earns its keep: Alabama Extension figures that 0.5 to 1.5 ounces per square yard buys 4°F to 8°F. Bob Purvis's pick is an east slope, which catches morning sun and warms fast after a frost, and any hedge or fence across a slope will back cold air up into the trees above it.

What the weather records say

NOAA station records here: −36°F at Leavenworth 3 S, −33°F at Waterville, −21°F at Pangborn and −19°F at Wenatchee, all on December 30, 1968; −31°F at Plain (February 1, 1950); −26°F at Rock Island (January 30, 1937); −20°F at the old Experiment Station (December 29, 1990); −18°F at Chelan (January 31, 1893 and December 30, 1968). The planning numbers rest on winters since 1995-96, and the worst of those, January 1996 and January 13, 2024, stayed well short: Leavenworth −18°F, Plain −18°F, Waterville −16°F, Chelan −14°F, Wenatchee −7°F. The 1955 freeze killed many trees across Washington, worst on young, vigorous trees and nursery stock. Timing matters: a tree that hasn't hardened off can die at temperatures it would ride out in January.

WSU's Chelan-Douglas Master Gardeners put Wenatchee sites near the river in USDA zone 7b on the 2023 map, and higher sites like Chelan and Leavenworth in 7a to 6b (sources differ on Chelan). USDA builds its zones on the average winter's coldest night, and our typical winter for Wenatchee, 6°F, fits 7b. Ours are built on the bad night: 6b at Entiat, 6a on the shore above Rocky Reach and on the East Wenatchee Bench, 5b in Wenatchee, Cashmere and around Lake Chelan, 5a from Dryden up through Leavenworth and Plain and on the plateau, 4b at Coles Corner.

What you can grow here

From Wenatchee to Lake Chelan most of our list clears winter, so pick by bloom and site. Up the valley and on the plateau, the winter number takes over again.

The Columbia shore and the benches above it, −3°F to −11°F (Entiat, Orondo, Wagnersburg, Winesap, Stayman, East Wenatchee and the Bench, Wenatchee, Wenatchee Heights, Sunnyslope). Anything rated −20°F or colder has room: Bing, Santa Rosa plum (−20°F), Fantasia and Flavortop nectarines, Javid's Iranian Seedling almond, Glowingstar, Risingstar and Redstar (−25°F) peaches, Wenatchee Moorpark, Perfection and Tomcot (−30°F) apricots, Skeena cherry, Persimmon (Montana Trial) (−25°F) and Purvis Hardy English walnut (−25°F). Chicago Hardy Fig fits at Entiat, Orondo, Wagnersburg, Winesap, Stayman, East Wenatchee and the Bench, and is worth a try in town.

Cashmere, Malaga, Rock Island and the Lake Chelan shore, −12°F to −15°F (Chelan, Manson, Greens Landing, Chelan Falls, Cashmere, Monitor, Malaga, Rock Island, South Wenatchee, Farris, Ardenvoir). Trees rated −20°F fit, and −25°F and colder gives you room: Lapins, Rainier and Skeena cherries; Italian, Early Italian and Yakima (−40°F) plums, with Superior (−35°F) next to Toka (−45°F), its pollenizer (see our pollination maps); Bartlett, Red d'Anjou and Seckel (−35°F) pears on the benches; Harlayne and Wenatchee Moorpark apricots on the warm slopes; Spartan, Gravenstein, Macoun and Stayman Winesap apples; Marquette, Frontenac and La Crescent grapes.

The upper valley and the plateau, −18°F to −21°F (Dryden, Leavenworth, Peshastin, Chumstick, Plain, Winton, Brief, Chiwawa Pines, Merritt, Telma, Coles Corner, Waterville, Douglas). Plan with room for a 1968: Haralson, Wolf River, Zestar!® and Northwest Greening (−40°F) apples; Kerr and Trailman applecrabs; Summercrisp, Flemish Beauty and Bolshaya (−50°F) pears off the low spots; Toka, Black Ice and Mount Royal plums; Evan's Bali tart cherry; Westcot and Debbie's Gold (−45°F) apricots up high; Honeyberry, Montana Black Currant, Nanking Cherry and Serviceberry (all −50°F) for the bottoms.

Snow is a root's best cover, and Wenatchee averages only about 16 inches a year against Leavenworth's 90, so on the Columbia benches mulch and don't let the soil go into winter dry. Ed Schultz has had Bud 118 rootstock come through near −50°F under snow at his Gallatin Gateway, Montana farm with no damage. This is dry country (Wenatchee gets 8 to 11 inches of precipitation a year), so water with drip, the only irrigation we advise for fruit trees out here, and ease off late in the season so trees harden off. WSU's Master Gardeners describe soils near pH 7 and leaning alkaline, mostly silt and sand with clay pockets, low in organic matter and water-holding around Wenatchee. They also warn of hot, drying summer winds and snow breakage, and WSU's home spray schedules here target codling moth and cherry fruit fly. Our cold hardiness calculator lists everything we sell by the coldest night it has come through. Over Blewett Pass, the Yakima, Ellensburg and Kittitas Valley map takes over.

Fruit history here

Father Urban Grassi is credited with teaching irrigation at Old Mission, now Cashmere, in the early 1870s, and D. S. Farrar with the Cashmere area's first fruit trees in 1883. The Patterson orchard, planted in 1884, is called Wenatchee's first truly commercial orchard. Water did the rest: the Peshastin Ditch reached the slopes above Cashmere in 1901, the Highline Canal ran 14 miles from Dryden to Wenatchee from 1901, and the 1908 Columbia bridge opened East Wenatchee and Douglas County to orchards. By 1909 the valley shipped about 2,000 cars of apples a year, and in the mid-1920s Wenatchee Daily World publisher Rufus Woods coined "Apple Capital of the World." Golden Delicious and Winesap led the state in the late 1930s, and Red Delicious took over by the mid-1950s. Liberty Orchards in Cashmere, the Aplets & Cotlets company, was founded by Armen Tertsagian and Mark Balaban, who came in 1915 because the valley reminded them of Armenia.

Questions people ask

What zone is Wenatchee, WA?

WSU's Master Gardeners put Wenatchee sites near the river in USDA zone 7b on the 2023 map, which is built on an average winter. Our planning low for downtown Wenatchee is −10°F, MFTC zone 5b, and for East Wenatchee −9°F (6a). Entiat is 6b, Leavenworth and Plain 5a, and Coles Corner 4b.

When do apples bloom in Wenatchee?

The Red Delicious full bloom record at Wenatchee, kept since 1922, puts the average at April 27. The earliest was April 9, 2015, and the latest May 16, 1922. The Apple Blossom Festival runs late April into early May to match it.

When is the last frost in Wenatchee?

NOAA's 1991 to 2020 median last 32°F frost is April 4 at the Wenatchee station and April 10 at Pangborn; one year in ten it comes after April 22. Up the valley it's much later: May 2 at Leavenworth and May 21 at Plain.

Why is Leavenworth colder than Wenatchee?

Leavenworth sits about 500 feet higher on a valley floor ringed by mountains, the kind of floor where cold air settles on still nights, and its deep snow chills the air further. Its station runs a median 11°F colder on the year's coldest night than Wenatchee's, and it hit −36°F on December 30, 1968, when Wenatchee read −19°F. We haven't found a published study of why. We plan for −18°F at Leavenworth and −10°F in Wenatchee.

Does Lake Chelan freeze?

We haven't found a reliable ice record for Lake Chelan. What's documented is the warmth it gives its shore: 89.6 days a year below 32°F against 102.3 in the Wenatchee Valley, and a vine-killing freeze about once in 17 years against once in 6 to 8 years at East Wenatchee and other Washington sites. Chelan and Manson plan for −13°F and −12°F.

Can you grow peaches in Wenatchee?

Yes. Peaches, apricots and nectarines are commercial crops in East Wenatchee and Douglas County, and every peach we sell, from Redstar and Risingstar (−25°F) up, clears Wenatchee's −10°F with room. Bloom is the risk, so plant on ground that reads warm at bloom, like the East Wenatchee Bench, not the river bottom at South Wenatchee.

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.