Tennessee Plant Hardiness Zones

Hardiness Zones, also referred to as Growing Zones or Planting zones are defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS). The zones in this map were created in 2023 using mean extreme climate data covering the period of 1991 to 2020. The previous version of this map released in 2012 was created using climate data from the period of 1976-2005. The data in the 2012 maps covered a cooler period than the 2023 maps.
The US state of Tennessee is covered by a total of 6 hardiness zones: zones 5b to 8a. The coolest zones are in the extreme Eastern end of the state near the North Carolina border. The coldest zone in the state is around Mount Guyot which is in hardiness zone 5b (-15°F to -10°F) and the second coldest is zone 6a (-10°F to -5°F) around Mount Le Conte and other high elevation areas. Most of the central and Eastern sections of the state fall in zone 7b including Metro Nashville, Knoxville and Kingsport and Johnson City. There are some cooler areas in zone 7b that dip into East Central Tennessee and on the Northwest side of Nashville including the cities of Springfield, Cookeville and Crossville. The warmest zones in the state cover the metro areas of Chattanooga and Memphis at zone 8a.