Willcox, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Willcox, 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 Willcox 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 Willcox — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Willcox — the short answer
Willcox, Arizona: USDA zone 8a, about 237 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~237
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Willcox's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Willcox's 237-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Willcox
Each reading below is measured for Willcox itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWillcox runs about 237 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredWillcox sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Willcox is in
Willcox sits in the Madrean Archipelago — EPA Level III, inside the wider Southern Semi-arid Highlands. That is read at Willcox's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cochise County.
What Grows in Willcox
Every plant below cleared Willcox's own zone 8a and its 237-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Willcox?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Willcox
Survey cells within 31 miles of Willcox checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 431 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Willcox
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Willcox. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WILLCOX MAIN CO #125480Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- JUDD TRANSMISSION - FORMERUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- WILLCOX AREA WIDE STUDYUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- MICKS AUTO CARE CHEVRON # 9-1235Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- SOUTHERN PACIFIC DEPOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- WADE CHEVROLETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CIRCLE K #2941Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- JOSEPH & LOIS PADULA - FORMERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SCHMELZLA OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SPEEDWAY STORE #2988Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- ARRID IRRIGATION SUPPLY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- CRYSTAL ICE & COLD STORAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Willcox'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 Willcox.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Willcox
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Willcox
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Willcox, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Willcox — Nitrate (78 sites) and Mining (11 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Willcox
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 Willcox average
Your land is one point inside Willcox
Everything above resolves to Willcox as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K acres. 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 city 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 Willcox Average
Willcox Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Willcox
- ●One soil character for all of Willcox
- ●Frost dates read at Willcox's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Willcox's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Willcox
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Willcox, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Willcox averages can't show:
We read public map data around Willcox — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Willcox average
How we know this about Willcox
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Willcox’s own record; 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Willcox
When does frost risk typically end in Willcox?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Willcox typically lands around Mar 20, 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 Apr 10.
When is the first frost in Willcox?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Willcox typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 237 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Willcox?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Willcox sees about 237 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Oct 29, about 202 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Willcox?
The federal record around Willcox is a meaningful one — 131 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (78), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Willcox?
From about Oct 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 Nov 12 (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 Nov 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Willcox's scale — its 8a band and its 237-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Willcox'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 Willcox’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Willcox's own scale — its own ~237-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,239 acres it covers and 131 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Willcox's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Willcox's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 12 and the ~237-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 131 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Willcox, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Willcox's boundary and the 4,239 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~237-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Willcox's own centroid, the Madrean ArchipelagoUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Willcox checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Willcox's 4,239 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cochise County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cochise 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 Cochise County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Willcox's 4,239 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Willcox you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,239 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Willcox-wide figureread your own land →