Rison, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Rison, 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 Rison 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 Rison — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Rison — the short answer
Rison, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 256 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 8
- Cleveland County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- Cleveland County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~256
- Cleveland County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Cleveland County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Rison's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rison's 256-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rison
Each reading below is measured for Rison itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsRison runs about 256 days between hard freezes (read from Cleveland County, the closest normal to Rison) — 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
MeasuredRison 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 Rison is in
Rison sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rison's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cleveland County.
What Grows in Rison
Every plant below cleared Rison's own zone 8a and its 256-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rison?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Rison
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rison. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RISON ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CLEVELAND COUNTY TELEPHONE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- QUIK 'M CONVENIENCE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- CLEVELAND COUNTY OIL CO #2Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ENGLAND PACKING COMPANY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CLEVELAND COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRIUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CLEVELAND COUNTY PESTICIDE COLLECTION (STERICYCLE)Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- AHTD-RISON AREA HEADQUARTERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- PIONEER OIL COMPANY #129Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BIG O SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- STELLA - JONES CORPORATION - RISONBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- STELLA - JONES CORPORATION - RISONToxics Release Inventory · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rison'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 Rison.
Total Sites
36
within ~10 miles of Rison
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rison
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rison
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rison, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 12 sites within ~10 miles of Rison. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Rison
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 Rison average
Your land is one point inside Rison
Everything above resolves to Rison as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Cleveland County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 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 Rison Average
Rison Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Rison
- ●One soil character for all of Rison
- ●Frost dates read at Rison's scale: Mar 8 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rison's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rison
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rison, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rison averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rison — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rison average
How we know this about Rison
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 Cleveland 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 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 Rison
When does frost risk typically end in Rison?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rison typically lands around Mar 8, 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 Mar 29.
When is the first frost in Rison?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rison typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 256 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rison?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rison sees about 256 frost-free days — roughly Mar 8 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 29 to Nov 5, about 221 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rison?
The federal record around Rison is light — 36 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (19), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Rison?
From about Oct 20 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rison's scale — its 8a band and its 256-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rison'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 Rison’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Rison's own scale — the 2,096 acres it covers and 36 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rison's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 36 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rison, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rison's boundary and the 2,096 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~256-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rison's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Rison has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Cleveland County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rison's 2,096 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cleveland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cleveland County
- The growing challenges every Arkansas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Arkansas
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Cleveland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rison's 2,096 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rison you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,096 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Rison-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arkansas
Wider growing context
What grows across ArkansasRison sits outside our named growing regions, so Arkansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides