Cullen, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cullen, 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 Cullen 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 Cullen — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cullen — the short answer
Cullen, Louisiana: USDA zone 8b, about 275 days between hard freezes, across 738 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 25
- Webster Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- Webster Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~275
- Webster Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 738 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 Webster Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Cullen's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cullen's 275-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cullen
Each reading below is measured for Cullen itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCullen runs about 275 days between hard freezes (read from Webster Parish, the closest normal to Cullen) — 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
MeasuredCullen sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Cullen is in
Cullen sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cullen's own centroid rather than borrowed from Webster Parish.
What Grows in Cullen
Every plant below cleared Cullen's own zone 8b and its 275-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cullen?
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 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Cullen
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cullen. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Wb-177Nitrate · 550 ft
- Wb-128Nitrate · 650 ft
- J&B GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Harkin Oil Co - Cullen Handy StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Wb-146Nitrate · 1500 ft
- Norwood's StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Tires-N-MoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Bee Bop's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Wb-155Nitrate · 2500 ft
- Harkins Oil Co - Overstreets ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Advantage Fuel SystemUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Springhill ContainerUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cullen'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 Cullen.
Total Sites
223
within ~10 miles of Cullen
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cullen
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cullen
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cullen, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 84 sites within ~10 miles of Cullen. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Cullen
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 Cullen average
Your land is one point inside Cullen
Everything above resolves to Cullen as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 738 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Webster Parish’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 Cullen Average
Cullen Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Cullen
- ●One soil character for all of Cullen
- ●Frost dates read at Cullen's scale: Feb 25 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cullen's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cullen
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cullen, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cullen averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cullen — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cullen average
How we know this about Cullen
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 Webster Parish’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 Cullen
When does frost risk typically end in Cullen?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cullen typically lands around Feb 25, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Cullen?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cullen typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 275 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cullen?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cullen sees about 275 frost-free days — roughly Feb 25 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 18 to Nov 13, about 240 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cullen?
The federal record around Cullen is a meaningful one — 223 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (98), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Cullen?
From about Oct 28 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cullen's scale — its 8b band and its 275-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cullen'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 Cullen’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Cullen's own scale — the 738 acres it covers and 223 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cullen's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 223 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cullen, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cullen's boundary and the 738 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~275-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cullen's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Cullen has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Webster Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cullen's 738 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Webster County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Webster County
- The growing challenges every Louisiana grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Louisiana
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Webster County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cullen's 738 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cullen you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 738 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Cullen-wide figureread your own land →
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