Wister, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Wister, 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 Wister 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 Wister — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Wister — the short answer
Wister, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7b, about 229 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~229
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Wister's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wister's 229-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wister
Each reading below is measured for Wister itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWister runs about 229 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
MeasuredWister 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 Wister is in
Wister sits in the Arkansas Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wister's own centroid rather than borrowed from Le Flore County.
What Grows in Wister
Every plant below cleared Wister's own zone 7b and its 229-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wister?
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 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — 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 Wister
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wister. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Morgan ComansUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Tex-MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Two State Tire Company, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Wister Public School Dist. #1-4Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Sam'sUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Ron GroverUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Faye Waters TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Lake Wister State ParkUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Fisherman's Net LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Mountain Creek Gap EnterprisesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Wister Project OfficeUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Sam Bennett Saw MillUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wister'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 Wister.
Total Sites
114
within ~10 miles of Wister
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wister
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wister
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wister, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Wister — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (92 sites). 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Wister
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 Wister average
Your land is one point inside Wister
Everything above resolves to Wister as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Wister Average
Wister Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Wister
- ●One soil character for all of Wister
- ●Frost dates read at Wister's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wister's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wister
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wister, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wister averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wister — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wister average
How we know this about Wister
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 Wister’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 Wister
When does frost risk typically end in Wister?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wister typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Wister?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wister typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 229 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wister?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wister sees about 229 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Oct 25, about 194 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wister?
The federal record around Wister shows 114 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (92), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles 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 Wister?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wister's scale — its 7b band and its 229-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wister'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 Wister’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wister's own scale — its own ~229-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,208 acres it covers and 114 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wister's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wister's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 8 and the ~229-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 114 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wister, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wister's boundary and the 1,208 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~229-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wister's own centroid, the Arkansas ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wister's 1,208 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Le Flore County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Le Flore 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 Le Flore County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wister's 1,208 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wister you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,208 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 Wister-wide figureread your own land →