Wilmore, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Wilmore, 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 Wilmore 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 Wilmore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wilmore — the short answer
Wilmore, Kansas: USDA zone 7a, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 113 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 113 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 7a is Wilmore's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wilmore's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wilmore
Each reading below is measured for Wilmore itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWilmore runs about 212 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
MeasuredWilmore sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Wilmore is in
Wilmore sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Wilmore's own centroid rather than borrowed from Comanche County.
What Grows in Wilmore
Every plant below cleared Wilmore's own zone 7a and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wilmore?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Wilmore
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wilmore. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WILMORE AUTOMOTIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- YOST, HARLINUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- 30S 17W 34CDD 01Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- 32S 17W 11BABA01 CQS-101Nitrate · 5.3 mi
- 30S 17W 20CC 01Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- 31S 19W 24ABB 01Nitrate · 6.6 mi
- KANSAS DEPT OF TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- 31S 19W 14DDD 01Nitrate · 7.5 mi
- JOHNS AUTO & BODYBrownfields · 7.7 mi
- COMANCHE CATTLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.7 mi
- CURTS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 7.7 mi
- COMANCHE CLNRSBrownfields · 7.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wilmore'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 Wilmore.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wilmore
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wilmore
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wilmore, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 30 sites within ~10 miles of Wilmore. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Wilmore
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 Wilmore average
Your land is one point inside Wilmore
Everything above resolves to Wilmore as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 113 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 Wilmore Average
Wilmore Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Wilmore
- ●One soil character for all of Wilmore
- ●Frost dates read at Wilmore's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wilmore's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wilmore
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wilmore, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wilmore averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wilmore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wilmore average
How we know this about Wilmore
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 Wilmore’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 Wilmore
When does frost risk typically end in Wilmore?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wilmore typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Wilmore?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wilmore typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wilmore?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wilmore sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 19, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wilmore?
The federal record around Wilmore is light — 45 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (30), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Wilmore?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wilmore's scale — its 7a band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wilmore'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 Wilmore’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wilmore's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 113 acres it covers and 45 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wilmore's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wilmore's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Nov 2 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 45 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wilmore, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wilmore's boundary and the 113 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wilmore's own centroid, the Southwestern TablelandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wilmore's 113 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Comanche County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Comanche County
- The growing challenges every Kansas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Kansas
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Comanche County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wilmore's 113 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wilmore you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 113 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 Wilmore-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasWilmore sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides