Rush Springs, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rush Springs, 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 Rush Springs 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 Rush Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rush Springs — the short answer
Rush Springs, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7b, about 239 days between hard freezes, across 744 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~239
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 744 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 Rush Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rush Springs's 239-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rush Springs
Each reading below is measured for Rush Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRush Springs runs about 239 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
MeasuredRush Springs 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 Rush Springs is in
Rush Springs sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Rush Springs's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Grady County is mostly Central Great Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Rush Springs
Every plant below cleared Rush Springs's own zone 7b and its 239-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rush Springs?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Rush Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rush Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Hop & Sack #2Underground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Former Pamm's TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Regal Oak Station #783Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Former Adamsons Full ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Funk's GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- J & C MANUFACTURING INCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- Rush Springs Public SchoolsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Mary Dell Stamper Sta. & Gro.Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Capital Dis. GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- 04N-07W-29 DD 1Nitrate · 2600 ft
- 04N-07W-33 BAB 1Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- Grady County Barn, Dist #3Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rush Springs'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 Rush Springs.
Total Sites
185
within ~10 miles of Rush Springs
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rush Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rush Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rush Springs, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 130 sites within ~10 miles of Rush Springs. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Rush Springs
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 Rush Springs average
Your land is one point inside Rush Springs
Everything above resolves to Rush Springs as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 744 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 Rush Springs Average
Rush Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Rush Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Rush Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Rush Springs's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rush Springs's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rush Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rush Springs, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rush Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rush Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rush Springs average
How we know this about Rush Springs
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 Rush Springs’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 Rush Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Rush Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rush Springs typically lands around Mar 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Rush Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rush Springs typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 239 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rush Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rush Springs sees about 239 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Oct 29, about 204 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rush Springs?
The federal record around Rush Springs shows 185 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (130), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Rush Springs?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rush Springs's scale — its 7b band and its 239-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rush Springs'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 Rush Springs’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rush Springs's own scale — its own ~239-day season between 28°F freezes, the 744 acres it covers and 185 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rush Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rush Springs's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 18 and Nov 12 and the ~239-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 185 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rush Springs, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rush Springs's boundary and the 744 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~239-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Rush Springs sits in the Cross Timbers — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rush Springs's 744 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grady County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grady 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 Grady County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rush Springs's 744 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rush Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 744 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Rush Springs-wide figureread your own land →
More in Oklahoma
Wider growing context
What grows across OklahomaRush Springs sits outside our named growing regions, so Oklahoma as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides