Ladonia, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ladonia, 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 Ladonia 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 Ladonia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ladonia — the short answer
Ladonia, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 264 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 3
- Fannin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- Fannin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~264
- Fannin 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 Fannin County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Ladonia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ladonia's 264-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ladonia
Each reading below is measured for Ladonia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLadonia runs about 264 days between hard freezes (read from Fannin County, the closest normal to Ladonia) — 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
MeasuredLadonia sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Ladonia is in
Ladonia sits in the Texas Blackland Prairies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Ladonia's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fannin County.
What Grows in Ladonia
Every plant below cleared Ladonia's own zone 8a and its 264-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ladonia?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 22 — 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 Ladonia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ladonia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BILLY MELTON MOBIL STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- JS-17-33-504Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- EAST SIDE GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- J & J CUT RATEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- GENTLE BENS FISH DENUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- TEXS T ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
- GEORGE CATTLE & FEEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.5 mi
- NE TEX COOPERATIVE OIL MILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.0 mi
- 496 CENTRAL OFFICE GYPSY BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.0 mi
- HILLS TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.1 mi
- KWIK CHEK 37Underground Storage Tanks · 8.1 mi
- NORTH HUNT SUDPFAS · 8.1 mi
4 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ladonia'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 Ladonia.
Total Sites
17
within ~10 miles of Ladonia
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 nitrate monitoring sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ladonia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ladonia
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •PFAS do not break down in groundwater. Irrigate from a tested source.
Check your specific parcel in Ladonia
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 Ladonia average
Your land is one point inside Ladonia
Everything above resolves to Ladonia as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Fannin 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 Ladonia Average
Ladonia Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Ladonia
- ●One soil character for all of Ladonia
- ●Frost dates read at Ladonia's scale: Mar 3 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ladonia's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ladonia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ladonia, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ladonia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ladonia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ladonia average
How we know this about Ladonia
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 Fannin 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 Ladonia
When does frost risk typically end in Ladonia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ladonia typically lands around Mar 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Ladonia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ladonia typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 264 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ladonia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ladonia sees about 264 frost-free days — roughly Mar 3 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 24 to Nov 8, about 229 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ladonia?
The federal record around Ladonia shows 17 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (13), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Ladonia?
From about Oct 23 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ladonia's scale — its 8a band and its 264-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ladonia'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 Ladonia’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Ladonia's own scale — the 1,274 acres it covers and 17 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ladonia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 17 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ladonia, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ladonia's boundary and the 1,274 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~264-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ladonia's own centroid, the Texas Blackland PrairiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Ladonia has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Fannin County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ladonia's 1,274 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fannin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fannin 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 Fannin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ladonia's 1,274 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ladonia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,274 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Ladonia-wide figureread your own land →
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