Leona, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Leona, 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 Leona 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 Leona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Leona — the short answer
Leona, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 282 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 21
- Leon County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 30
- Leon County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~282
- Leon County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City 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 Leon County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Leona's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Leona's 282-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Leona
Each reading below is measured for Leona itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLeona runs about 282 days between hard freezes (read from Leon County, the closest normal to Leona) — 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
MeasuredLeona 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 Leona is in
Leona sits in the East Central Texas Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Leona's own centroid rather than borrowed from Leon County.
What Grows in Leona
Every plant below cleared Leona's own zone 8b and its 282-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Leona?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 30 — 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 Leona
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Leona. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LEONA COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- CENTERVILLE HOT MIX PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 3.8 mi
- YELLOW ROSE TRAVEL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- YELLOW ROSE COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- SA-38-49-502Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- CENTERVILLE ISD BUS BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
- SA-38-41-706Nitrate · 6.8 mi
- WALLACE TIRE & BATTERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- REEDS AUTO & TRANSMISSIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.1 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #10561Brownfields · 7.2 mi
- TIME MAXX 4Underground Storage Tanks · 7.2 mi
- WOODYS SMOKEHOUSE 2Underground Storage Tanks · 7.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Leona'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 Leona.
Total Sites
82
within ~10 miles of Leona
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Leona
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Leona
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Leona, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 71 sites within ~10 miles of Leona. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Leona
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 Leona average
Your land is one point inside Leona
Everything above resolves to Leona as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Leon 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 Leona Average
Leona Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Leona
- ●One soil character for all of Leona
- ●Frost dates read at Leona's scale: Feb 21 to Nov 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Leona's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Leona
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Leona, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Leona averages can't show:
We read public map data around Leona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Leona average
How we know this about Leona
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 Leon 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 Leona
When does frost risk typically end in Leona?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Leona typically lands around Feb 21, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Leona?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Leona typically arrives around Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 16, so the watching starts about Oct 31 — about 282 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Leona?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Leona sees about 282 frost-free days — roughly Feb 21 through Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 14 to Nov 16, about 247 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Leona?
The federal record around Leona shows 82 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (71), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.7 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 Leona?
From about Oct 31 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Leona's scale — its 8b band and its 282-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Leona'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 Leona’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Leona's own scale — the 1,423 acres it covers and 82 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Leona's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 82 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Leona, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Leona's boundary and the 1,423 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~282-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Leona's own centroid, the East Central Texas PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Leona has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Leon County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Leona's 1,423 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Leon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Leon 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 Leon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Leona's 1,423 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Leona you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,423 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.7 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 Leona-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasLeona sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides