Shawnee, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Shawnee, 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 Shawnee 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 Shawnee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Shawnee — the short answer
Shawnee, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7b, about 245 days between hard freezes, across 25K 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 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~245
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 25K 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 Shawnee's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Shawnee's 245-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Shawnee
Each reading below is measured for Shawnee itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredShawnee runs about 245 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
MeasuredShawnee 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 Shawnee is in
Shawnee sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Shawnee's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pottawatomie County.
What Grows in Shawnee
Every plant below cleared Shawnee's own zone 7b and its 245-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Shawnee?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Shawnee
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Shawnee. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ST. GREGORY'S UNIVERSITYBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Coots ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Kwick Stop #12Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Sinclair Mktg, Products TermUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Little G Gas & GroceriesUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Thunder MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Pottawatomie County Dist #1Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Link's Kerr McgeeUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Rvw Prop General PartnershipUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Hardesty's Gro. Mkt & Sta.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Golden Acres Lift StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- SSM Health St. Anthony Hospital - ShawneeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Shawnee'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 Shawnee.
Total Sites
364
within ~10 miles of Shawnee
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Shawnee
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Shawnee
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Shawnee, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Shawnee. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Shawnee
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 Shawnee average
Your land is one point inside Shawnee
Everything above resolves to Shawnee as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 25K 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 Shawnee Average
Shawnee Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Shawnee
- ●One soil character for all of Shawnee
- ●Frost dates read at Shawnee's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Shawnee's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Shawnee
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Shawnee, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Shawnee averages can't show:
We read public map data around Shawnee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Shawnee average
How we know this about Shawnee
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 Shawnee’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 Shawnee
When does frost risk typically end in Shawnee?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Shawnee 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 Shawnee?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Shawnee typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 245 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Shawnee?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Shawnee sees about 245 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Nov 1, about 210 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Shawnee?
The federal record around Shawnee is a meaningful one — 364 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (216), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 Shawnee?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Shawnee's scale — its 7b band and its 245-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Shawnee'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 Shawnee’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Shawnee's own scale — its own ~245-day season between 28°F freezes, the 24,653 acres it covers and 364 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Shawnee's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Shawnee's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 15 and Nov 15 and the ~245-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 364 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Shawnee, the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Shawnee's boundary and the 24,653 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~245-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Shawnee's own centroid, the Cross TimbersUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Shawnee's 24,653 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pottawatomie County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pottawatomie 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 Pottawatomie County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Shawnee's 24,653 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Shawnee you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 24,653 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 Shawnee-wide figureread your own land →
More in Oklahoma
Wider growing context
What grows across OklahomaShawnee sits outside our named growing regions, so Oklahoma as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides