Marlow, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Marlow, 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 Marlow 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 Marlow — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Marlow — the short answer
Marlow, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7b, about 246 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 15
- 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
- ~246
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K 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 7b is Marlow's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Marlow's 246-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Marlow
Each reading below is measured for Marlow itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMarlow runs about 246 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
MeasuredMarlow sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Marlow is in
Marlow sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Marlow's own centroid rather than borrowed from Stephens County.
What Grows in Marlow
Every plant below cleared Marlow's own zone 7b and its 246-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Marlow?
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 Feb 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 15 (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.
What's on the federal record near Marlow
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Marlow. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Stephens County Comm Dist #1Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Former Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Marlow ConcreteUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- WILCO MACH AND FABRICATION INC / NOV WILCO NORTHToxics Release Inventory · 2300 ft
- WILCO MACH AND FABRICATION INC / NOV WILCO NORTHBrownfields · 2300 ft
- NOV WILCOToxics Release Inventory · 2400 ft
- RainsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- J & M's Shop-N-Bag LlcUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Love's Country Store #56Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Former Boyce's CitgoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Marlow Food MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CIMARRON ENERGY INCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Marlow'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 Marlow.
Total Sites
226
within ~10 miles of Marlow
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Marlow
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Marlow
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Marlow, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 17 sites within ~10 miles of Marlow. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Marlow
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 Marlow average
Your land is one point inside Marlow
Everything above resolves to Marlow as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Marlow Average
Marlow Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Marlow
- ●One soil character for all of Marlow
- ●Frost dates read at Marlow's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Marlow's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Marlow
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Marlow, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Marlow averages can't show:
We read public map data around Marlow — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Marlow average
How we know this about Marlow
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 Marlow’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 Marlow
When does frost risk typically end in Marlow?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Marlow typically lands around Mar 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Marlow?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Marlow 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 246 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Marlow?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Marlow sees about 246 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Nov 2, about 211 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Marlow?
The federal record around Marlow is a meaningful one — 226 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (132), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Marlow?
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 Marlow's scale — its 7b band and its 246-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Marlow'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 Marlow’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Marlow's own scale — its own ~246-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,515 acres it covers and 226 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Marlow's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Marlow's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 15 and Nov 16 and the ~246-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 226 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Marlow, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Marlow's boundary and the 4,515 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~246-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Marlow's own centroid, the Cross TimbersUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Marlow's 4,515 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Stephens County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Stephens County
- The growing challenges every Oklahoma grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Oklahoma
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Stephens County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Marlow's 4,515 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Marlow you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,515 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Marlow-wide figureread your own land →
More in Oklahoma
Wider growing context
What grows across OklahomaMarlow sits outside our named growing regions, so Oklahoma as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides