Luray, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Luray, 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 Luray 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 Luray — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Luray — the short answer
Luray, South Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 289 days between hard freezes, across 661 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 18
- Hampton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 4
- Hampton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~289
- Hampton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 661 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Hampton County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Luray's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Luray's 289-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Luray
Each reading below is measured for Luray itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLuray runs about 289 days between hard freezes (read from Hampton County, the closest normal to Luray) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredLuray sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Luray is in
Luray sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Luray's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hampton County.
What Grows in Luray
Every plant below cleared Luray's own zone 8b and its 289-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Luray?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Luray
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Luray. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GROTON PLANTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- OAKWOOD PRODUCTS INC ESTILL FACILITYBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- OAKWOOD PRODUCTS, INC./ESTILL FACILITYSuperfund · 2.3 mi
- LONG OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- ROUSE FARM IRRIGATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- SC684Underground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- BOBOPS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- FORMER ESTILL SECTION SHEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- THREE WAY FOOD STORE 3Underground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- HAM- 36Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- SMITHS AUTO SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- FORMER CHEVROLET BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Luray'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 Luray.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Luray
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Luray
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Luray, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Luray. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Luray
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 Luray average
Your land is one point inside Luray
Everything above resolves to Luray as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 661 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Hampton County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Luray Average
Luray Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Luray
- ●One soil character for all of Luray
- ●Frost dates read at Luray's scale: Feb 18 to Dec 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Luray's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Luray
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Luray, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Luray averages can't show:
We read public map data around Luray — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Luray average
How we know this about Luray
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 Hampton County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Luray
When does frost risk typically end in Luray?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Luray typically lands around Feb 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 Mar 11.
When is the first frost in Luray?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Luray typically arrives around Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 20, so the watching starts about Nov 4 — about 289 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Luray?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Luray sees about 289 frost-free days — roughly Feb 18 through Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 11 to Nov 20, about 254 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Luray?
The federal record around Luray is a meaningful one — 171 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (103), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 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 Luray?
From about Nov 4 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 Dec 4 (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 Dec 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Luray's scale — its 8b band and its 289-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Luray'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 Luray’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Luray's own scale — the 661 acres it covers and 171 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Luray's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 171 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Luray, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Luray's boundary and the 661 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~289-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Luray's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Luray has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Hampton County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Luray's 661 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hampton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hampton County
- The growing challenges every South Carolina grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom South Carolina
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Hampton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Luray's 661 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Luray you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 661 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 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 Luray-wide figureread your own land →