Picture Rocks, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include jalapeno, palo verde, date palm, and prickly pear; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Picture Rocks, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Picture Rocks lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Picture Rocks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Picture Rocks — the short answer
Picture Rocks, Arizona: USDA zone 9b, about 313 days between hard freezes, across 45K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 3
- Pima County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 13
- Pima County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~313
- Pima County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 45K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Pima County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Picture Rocks's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Picture Rocks's 313-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Picture Rocks
Each reading below is measured for Picture Rocks itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPicture Rocks runs about 313 days between hard freezes (read from Pima County, the closest normal to Picture Rocks) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredPicture Rocks sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Picture Rocks is in
Picture Rocks sits in the Sonoran Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Picture Rocks's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pima County.
What Grows in Picture Rocks
Plants matched to Picture Rocks's USDA zones 9b, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Picture Rocks?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Picture Rocks
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Picture Rocks. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CAP - TWIN PEAKS PLANTBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- SPEEDWAY STORE #2983Underground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- WAGON WHEEL GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #8955Brownfields · 2.4 mi
- SPEEDWAY STORE #2969Underground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- BomboyMining · 2.7 mi
- PARCEL 215-33-045Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- D-13-11 20DCCNitrate · 3.4 mi
- MARANA HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- D-12-10 33DDD [AF-17]Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- TWIN PEAKS PUMPING PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- Unnamed Prospect 145-2Mining · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Picture Rocks's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Picture Rocks.
Total Sites
323
within ~10 miles of Picture Rocks
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Picture Rocks
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Picture Rocks
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Picture Rocks, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Picture Rocks — Mining (187 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Picture Rocks
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Picture Rocks average
Your land is one point inside Picture Rocks
Everything above resolves to Picture Rocks as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 45K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Pima County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Picture Rocks Average
Picture Rocks Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Picture Rocks
- ●One soil character for all of Picture Rocks
- ●Frost dates read at Picture Rocks's scale: Feb 3 to Dec 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Picture Rocks's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Picture Rocks
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Picture Rocks, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Picture Rocks averages can't show:
We read public map data around Picture Rocks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Picture Rocks average
How we know this about Picture Rocks
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Pima County’s record, because none resolves here; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Picture Rocks
When does frost risk typically end in Picture Rocks?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Picture Rocks typically lands around Feb 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Feb 24.
When is the first frost in Picture Rocks?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Picture Rocks typically arrives around Dec 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 29, so the watching starts about Nov 13 — about 313 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Picture Rocks?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Picture Rocks sees about 313 frost-free days — roughly Feb 3 through Dec 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 24 to Nov 29, about 278 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Picture Rocks?
The federal record around Picture Rocks runs heavier than most — 323 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (187), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.7 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Picture Rocks?
From about Nov 13 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Dec 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Dec 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Picture Rocks's scale — its 9b band and its 313-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Picture Rocks's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Picture Rocks’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Picture Rocks's own scale — the 45,340 acres it covers and 323 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Picture Rocks's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 323 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Picture Rocks, the closest Brownfields record about 1.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Picture Rocks's boundary and the 45,340 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Picture Rocks's own centroid, the Sonoran Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Picture Rocks has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Pima County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Picture Rocks's 45,340 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pima County
- The candidate plant list — Arizona's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom Arizona
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pima County
- The growing challenges every Arizona grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Arizona
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Pima County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Picture Rocks's 45,340 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Picture Rocks you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 45,340 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.7 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Picture Rocks-wide figureread your own land →