Cape Royale, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Cape Royale, 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 Cape Royale 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 Cape Royale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cape Royale — the short answer
Cape Royale, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 300 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 10
- San Jacinto County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 7
- San Jacinto County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~300
- San Jacinto County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 San Jacinto County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Cape Royale's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cape Royale's 300-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cape Royale
Each reading below is measured for Cape Royale itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCape Royale runs about 300 days between hard freezes (read from San Jacinto County, the closest normal to Cape Royale) — 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
MeasuredCape Royale sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Cape Royale is in
Cape Royale sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cape Royale's own centroid rather than borrowed from San Jacinto County.
What Grows in Cape Royale
Every plant below cleared Cape Royale's own zone 9a and its 300-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cape Royale?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Cape Royale
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cape Royale. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CAPE ROYALE SALES OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CAPE ROYALE MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- WU-60-23-907Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- WU-60-24-704Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- WU-60-23-509Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- B & H KOUNTRY GROCERY 2Underground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- B & H KOUNTRY GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- SAN JACINTO SUDPFAS · 4.0 mi
- IN & OUT FOOD STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- MIDWAY 19Underground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- BROOKSHIRE BROTHERS 72Underground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #6728Brownfields · 4.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cape Royale'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 Cape Royale.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cape Royale
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cape Royale
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cape Royale, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 68 sites within ~10 miles of Cape Royale. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Cape Royale
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 Cape Royale average
Your land is one point inside Cape Royale
Everything above resolves to Cape Royale as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from San Jacinto 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 Cape Royale Average
Cape Royale Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Cape Royale
- ●One soil character for all of Cape Royale
- ●Frost dates read at Cape Royale's scale: Feb 10 to Dec 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cape Royale's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cape Royale
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cape Royale, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cape Royale averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cape Royale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cape Royale average
How we know this about Cape Royale
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 San Jacinto 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 Cape Royale
When does frost risk typically end in Cape Royale?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cape Royale typically lands around Feb 10, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Cape Royale?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cape Royale typically arrives around Dec 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 23, so the watching starts about Nov 7 — about 300 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cape Royale?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cape Royale sees about 300 frost-free days — roughly Feb 10 through Dec 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 3 to Nov 23, about 265 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cape Royale?
The federal record around Cape Royale shows 82 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (68), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Cape Royale?
From about Nov 7 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cape Royale's scale — its 9a band and its 300-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cape Royale'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 Cape Royale’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Cape Royale's own scale — the 1,258 acres it covers and 82 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cape Royale's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 82 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cape Royale, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cape Royale's boundary and the 1,258 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~300-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cape Royale's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Cape Royale has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom San Jacinto County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cape Royale's 1,258 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom San Jacinto County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom San Jacinto 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 San Jacinto County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cape Royale's 1,258 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cape Royale you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,258 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 Cape Royale-wide figureread your own land →
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