Hollister, North Carolina, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hollister, 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 Hollister 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 Hollister — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hollister — the short answer
Hollister, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 242 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~242
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 Hollister's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hollister's 242-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hollister
Each reading below is measured for Hollister itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHollister runs about 242 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
MeasuredHollister 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 Hollister is in
Hollister sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hollister's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Halifax County is mostly Southeastern Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Hollister
Every plant below cleared Hollister's own zone 8a and its 242-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hollister?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Hollister
Survey cells within 31 miles of Hollister checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 32 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hollister
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hollister. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RC WILLIAMS LUMBER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- SAM'S CONVENIENT MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- HA-104 HOLLISTER SCHNitrate · 1400 ft
- R.H. SHEARIN GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- BETHLEHEM TRADING POSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- MEDLIN'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- HOLLISTER OIL CO., INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- J.J. RICHARDSON STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- MEDLIN'S SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- JOURNIGAN FOOD STORE 3Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WARREN COUNTY WATER SYSTEMPFAS · 1.2 mi
- CLE'S STOP & SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hollister'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 Hollister.
Total Sites
62
within ~10 miles of Hollister
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hollister
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hollister
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hollister, Mining runs higher than the national average — 6 sites within ~10 miles of Hollister. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Hollister
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 Hollister average
Your land is one point inside Hollister
Everything above resolves to Hollister 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 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 Hollister Average
Hollister Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Hollister
- ●One soil character for all of Hollister
- ●Frost dates read at Hollister's scale: Mar 19 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hollister's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hollister
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hollister, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hollister averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hollister — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hollister average
How we know this about Hollister
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 Hollister’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 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 Hollister
When does frost risk typically end in Hollister?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hollister typically lands around Mar 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 Apr 9.
When is the first frost in Hollister?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hollister typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 242 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hollister?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hollister sees about 242 frost-free days — roughly Mar 19 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 9 to Nov 2, about 207 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hollister?
The federal record around Hollister is a meaningful one — 62 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (38), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Hollister?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hollister's scale — its 8a band and its 242-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hollister'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 Hollister’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hollister's own scale — its own ~242-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,521 acres it covers and 62 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hollister's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hollister's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 19 and Nov 16 and the ~242-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 62 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hollister, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hollister's boundary and the 2,521 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~242-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Hollister sits in the Piedmont — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Hollister checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hollister's 2,521 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Halifax County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Halifax County
- The growing challenges every North Carolina grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom North Carolina
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Halifax County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hollister's 2,521 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hollister you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,521 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Hollister-wide figureread your own land →