Bloomington, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bloomington, 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 Bloomington 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 Bloomington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bloomington — the short answer
Bloomington, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 320 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 28
- Victoria County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 14
- Victoria County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~320
- Victoria County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Victoria County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Bloomington's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bloomington's 320-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bloomington
Each reading below is measured for Bloomington itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBloomington runs about 320 days between hard freezes (read from Victoria County, the closest normal to Bloomington) — 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
MeasuredBloomington sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b.
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 Bloomington is in
Bloomington sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Bloomington's own centroid rather than borrowed from Victoria County.
What Grows in Bloomington
Every plant below cleared Bloomington's own zone 9b and its 320-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bloomington?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Bloomington
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bloomington. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AM WYNN & SONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- WHITFIELD FLOYD HUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- JOES TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 36500Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BLOOMINGTON STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- AIR LIQUIDE - VICTORIA ASUBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- AIR LIQUIDE - VICTORIA ASUToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- NATURAL GAS PIPELINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- COWBOY HAVENUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- CITY OF VICTORIA LANDFILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- BLOOMINGTON ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- VICTORIA CITY LANDFILLToxics Release Inventory · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bloomington'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 Bloomington.
Total Sites
56
within ~10 miles of Bloomington
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bloomington
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bloomington
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bloomington, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 9 sites within ~10 miles of Bloomington. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Bloomington
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 Bloomington average
Your land is one point inside Bloomington
Everything above resolves to Bloomington as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Victoria 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 Bloomington Average
Bloomington Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Bloomington
- ●One soil character for all of Bloomington
- ●Frost dates read at Bloomington's scale: Jan 28 to Dec 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bloomington's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bloomington
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bloomington, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bloomington averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bloomington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bloomington average
How we know this about Bloomington
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 Victoria 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 Bloomington
When does frost risk typically end in Bloomington?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bloomington typically lands around Jan 28, 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 Feb 18.
When is the first frost in Bloomington?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bloomington typically arrives around Dec 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 30, so the watching starts about Nov 14 — about 320 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bloomington?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bloomington sees about 320 frost-free days — roughly Jan 28 through Dec 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 18 to Nov 30, about 285 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bloomington?
The federal record around Bloomington is a meaningful one — 56 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (27), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Bloomington?
From about Nov 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bloomington's scale — its 9b band and its 320-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bloomington'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 Bloomington’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Bloomington's own scale — the 1,696 acres it covers and 56 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bloomington's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 56 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bloomington, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bloomington's boundary and the 1,696 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~320-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bloomington's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Bloomington has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Victoria County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bloomington's 1,696 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Victoria County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Victoria County
- The growing challenges every Texas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Texas
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Victoria County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bloomington's 1,696 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bloomington you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,696 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Bloomington-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasBloomington sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides