Sunflower, Mississippi, 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 Sunflower, 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 Sunflower 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 Sunflower — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Sunflower — the short answer
Sunflower, Mississippi: USDA zone 8b, about 286 days between hard freezes, across 388 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 19
- Sunflower County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- Sunflower County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~286
- Sunflower County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 388 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 Sunflower County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Sunflower's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sunflower's 286-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sunflower
Each reading below is measured for Sunflower itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSunflower runs about 286 days between hard freezes (read from Sunflower County, the closest normal to Sunflower) — 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
MeasuredSunflower 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 Sunflower is in
Sunflower sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Sunflower's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sunflower County.
What Grows in Sunflower
Every plant below cleared Sunflower's own zone 8b and its 286-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sunflower?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 2 — 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 Sunflower
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sunflower. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 133O0001 SUNFLOWERNitrate · 250 ft
- W J Martin Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- Sledge Telephone CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Sunflower Amoco Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Doster GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Sunflower CitgoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Dodd's ShoppingUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- 133O0253 SUNFLOWERNitrate · 2300 ft
- 133O0254 SUNFLOWERNitrate · 2300 ft
- 133O0255 SUNFLOWERNitrate · 2300 ft
- 133O2058B SUNFLOWERNitrate · 2300 ft
- 133O2058 SUNFLOWER (Sunflower)Nitrate · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sunflower'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 Sunflower.
Total Sites
143
within ~10 miles of Sunflower
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sunflower
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sunflower
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sunflower, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 92 sites within ~10 miles of Sunflower. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Sunflower
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 Sunflower average
Your land is one point inside Sunflower
Everything above resolves to Sunflower as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 388 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Sunflower County’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 Sunflower Average
Sunflower Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Sunflower
- ●One soil character for all of Sunflower
- ●Frost dates read at Sunflower's scale: Feb 19 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sunflower's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sunflower
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sunflower, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sunflower averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sunflower — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sunflower average
How we know this about Sunflower
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 Sunflower 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 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 Sunflower
When does frost risk typically end in Sunflower?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sunflower typically lands around Feb 19, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Sunflower?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sunflower typically arrives around Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 18, so the watching starts about Nov 2 — about 286 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sunflower?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sunflower sees about 286 frost-free days — roughly Feb 19 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 12 to Nov 18, about 251 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sunflower?
The federal record around Sunflower shows 143 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (92), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Sunflower?
From about Nov 2 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 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 Dec 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sunflower's scale — its 8b band and its 286-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sunflower'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 Sunflower’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Sunflower's own scale — the 388 acres it covers and 143 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sunflower's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 143 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sunflower, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sunflower's boundary and the 388 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~286-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sunflower's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Sunflower has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Sunflower County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sunflower's 388 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sunflower County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sunflower 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 Sunflower County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sunflower's 388 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sunflower you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 388 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Sunflower-wide figureread your own land →