Cooper, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cooper, 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 Cooper 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 Cooper — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cooper — the short answer
Cooper, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 274 days between hard freezes, across 936 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 26
- Delta County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- Delta County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~274
- Delta County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 936 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 Delta County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Cooper's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cooper's 274-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cooper
Each reading below is measured for Cooper itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCooper runs about 274 days between hard freezes (read from Delta County, the closest normal to Cooper) — 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
MeasuredCooper 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 Cooper is in
Cooper sits in the Texas Blackland Prairies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Cooper's own centroid rather than borrowed from Delta County.
What Grows in Cooper
Every plant below cleared Cooper's own zone 8b and its 274-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cooper?
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 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Cooper
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cooper. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SCHOOL BUS BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- DELTA FAMILY MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- DELTA SUPERMARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- STEVE FISHERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- FIRST STOP FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- SLIM WATERS SHAMROCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- FRIENDS TIRE & MUFFLERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- DELTA SUPER SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- NU WAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- J P ALLEN GROCERY & STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- LAKEVIEW GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MURRAYS BAR-B-QUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cooper'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 Cooper.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cooper
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Cooper
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 Cooper average
Your land is one point inside Cooper
Everything above resolves to Cooper as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 936 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Delta County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 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 Cooper Average
Cooper Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Cooper
- ●One soil character for all of Cooper
- ●Frost dates read at Cooper's scale: Feb 26 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cooper's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cooper
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cooper, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cooper averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cooper — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cooper average
How we know this about Cooper
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 Delta 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 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 Cooper
When does frost risk typically end in Cooper?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cooper typically lands around Feb 26, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Cooper?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cooper typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 274 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cooper?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cooper sees about 274 frost-free days — roughly Feb 26 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 19 to Nov 13, about 239 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cooper?
The federal record around Cooper is light — 18 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (18), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cooper?
From about Oct 28 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cooper's scale — its 8b band and its 274-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cooper'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 Cooper’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Cooper's own scale — the 936 acres it covers and 18 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cooper's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 18 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cooper, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cooper's boundary and the 936 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~274-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cooper's own centroid, the Texas Blackland PrairiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Cooper has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Delta County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cooper's 936 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Delta County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Delta 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 Delta County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cooper's 936 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cooper you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 936 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Cooper-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasCooper sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.