Purvis, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Purvis, 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 Purvis 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 Purvis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Purvis — the short answer
Purvis, Mississippi: USDA zone 8b, about 290 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 16
- Lamar County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 3
- Lamar County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~290
- Lamar County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Lamar County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Purvis's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Purvis's 290-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Purvis
Each reading below is measured for Purvis itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPurvis runs about 290 days between hard freezes (read from Lamar County, the closest normal to Purvis) — 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
MeasuredPurvis 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 Purvis is in
Purvis sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Purvis's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lamar County.
What Grows in Purvis
Every plant below cleared Purvis's own zone 8b and its 290-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Purvis?
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 Jan 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 3 — 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 Purvis
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Purvis. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Keith's Superstore #122Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Keith's Superstore #120Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Lamar County DevelopmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Purvis ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Maintenance Area HeadquartersUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Lamar County Sheriff's DepartmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Purvis High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Louisiana Pacific SawmillUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- 073L0016 LAMARNitrate · 2500 ft
- Pearl River Valley EpaUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- A L Smith Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Lamar County Ready MixUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Purvis'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 Purvis.
Total Sites
221
within ~10 miles of Purvis
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Purvis
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Purvis
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Purvis, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Purvis — Nitrate (130 sites) and PFAS (4 sites). 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Purvis
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 Purvis average
Your land is one point inside Purvis
Everything above resolves to Purvis as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Lamar 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 Purvis Average
Purvis Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Purvis
- ●One soil character for all of Purvis
- ●Frost dates read at Purvis's scale: Feb 16 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Purvis's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Purvis
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Purvis, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Purvis averages can't show:
We read public map data around Purvis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Purvis average
How we know this about Purvis
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 Lamar 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 Purvis
When does frost risk typically end in Purvis?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Purvis typically lands around Feb 16, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Purvis?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Purvis typically arrives around Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 19, so the watching starts about Nov 3 — about 290 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Purvis?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Purvis sees about 290 frost-free days — roughly Feb 16 through Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 9 to Nov 19, about 255 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Purvis?
The federal record around Purvis is a meaningful one — 221 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (130), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Purvis?
From about Nov 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 Dec 3 (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 Dec 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Purvis's scale — its 8b band and its 290-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Purvis'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 Purvis’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Purvis's own scale — the 2,680 acres it covers and 221 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Purvis's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 221 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Purvis, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Purvis's boundary and the 2,680 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~290-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Purvis's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Purvis has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Lamar County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Purvis's 2,680 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lamar County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lamar County
- The growing challenges every Mississippi grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Mississippi
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Lamar County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Purvis's 2,680 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Purvis you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,680 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Purvis-wide figureread your own land →