Rockport, 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.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rockport, 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 Rockport 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 Rockport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rockport — the short answer
Rockport, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 260 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~260
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Rockport's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rockport's 260-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rockport
Each reading below is measured for Rockport itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRockport runs about 260 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredRockport 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 Rockport is in
Rockport sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rockport's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Hot Spring County is mostly Ouachita Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Rockport
Every plant below cleared Rockport's own zone 8a and its 260-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rockport?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — 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 Rockport
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rockport. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 04S17W10AAD1Nitrate · 2500 ft
- DLM, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CIRCLE K #2741789Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- AHTD-MALVERN AREA HEADQUARTERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- ARKANSAS WRECKERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- J MART #1Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- FIELD MAINTENANCE SHOP #4Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- HOT SPRING COUNTY BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- MALVERN OMS ARMY RESERVEBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- DLM DIVISION OF SYSTEMS, INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.5 mi
- BIG RED #301Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- MURPHY USA #7185Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rockport'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 Rockport.
Total Sites
226
within ~10 miles of Rockport
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rockport
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rockport
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rockport, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Rockport — PFAS (4 sites) and Superfund (5 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Rockport
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 Rockport average
Your land is one point inside Rockport
Everything above resolves to Rockport as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Rockport Average
Rockport Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Rockport
- ●One soil character for all of Rockport
- ●Frost dates read at Rockport's scale: Mar 6 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rockport's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rockport
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rockport, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rockport averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rockport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rockport average
How we know this about Rockport
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 Rockport’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 Rockport
When does frost risk typically end in Rockport?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rockport typically lands around Mar 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Rockport?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rockport typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 260 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rockport?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rockport sees about 260 frost-free days — roughly Mar 6 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 27 to Nov 7, about 225 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rockport?
The federal record around Rockport is a meaningful one — 226 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (113), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles 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 Rockport?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rockport's scale — its 8a band and its 260-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rockport'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 Rockport’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rockport's own scale — its own ~260-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,628 acres it covers and 226 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rockport's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rockport's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 6 and Nov 21 and the ~260-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 226 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rockport, the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rockport's boundary and the 2,628 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~260-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Rockport sits in the South Central Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rockport's 2,628 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hot Spring County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hot Spring 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 Hot Spring County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rockport's 2,628 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rockport you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,628 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Rockport-wide figureread your own land →
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