Little Cypress, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Little Cypress, 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 Little Cypress 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 Little Cypress — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Little Cypress — the short answer
Little Cypress, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 312 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 30
- Orange County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 8
- Orange County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~312
- Orange 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 Orange County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Little Cypress's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Little Cypress's 312-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Little Cypress
Each reading below is measured for Little Cypress itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLittle Cypress runs about 312 days between hard freezes (read from Orange County, the closest normal to Little Cypress) — 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
MeasuredLittle Cypress 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 Little Cypress is in
Little Cypress sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Little Cypress's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Orange County is mostly Western Gulf Coastal Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Little Cypress
Every plant below cleared Little Cypress's own zone 9a and its 312-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Little Cypress?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 8 — 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 Little Cypress
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Little Cypress. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ALL-IN-ONE GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- LCM MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- A & M AUTO RPRBrownfields · 2200 ft
- BRIAN SMITHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SABINE RIVER & NORTHERN RAILROADBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- UJ-62-50-903Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- DOLLAR PLUSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- CYPRESS PLAZA 1Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- CYPRESS BAYOU INDUSTRIAL PAINTINGBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- UJ-62-50-913Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- UJ-62-51-405Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- INTERNATIONAL PAPER - LANDFILLToxics Release Inventory · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Little Cypress'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 Little Cypress.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Little Cypress
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Little Cypress
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Little Cypress, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 27 sites within ~10 miles of Little Cypress. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Little Cypress
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 Little Cypress average
Your land is one point inside Little Cypress
Everything above resolves to Little Cypress as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Orange 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 Little Cypress Average
Little Cypress Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Little Cypress
- ●One soil character for all of Little Cypress
- ●Frost dates read at Little Cypress's scale: Jan 30 to Dec 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Little Cypress's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Little Cypress
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Little Cypress, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Little Cypress averages can't show:
We read public map data around Little Cypress — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Little Cypress average
How we know this about Little Cypress
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 Orange 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 Little Cypress
When does frost risk typically end in Little Cypress?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Little Cypress typically lands around Jan 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Little Cypress?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Little Cypress typically arrives around Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 24, so the watching starts about Nov 8 — about 312 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Little Cypress?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Little Cypress sees about 312 frost-free days — roughly Jan 30 through Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 20 to Nov 24, about 277 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Little Cypress?
The federal record around Little Cypress is a meaningful one — 433 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (212), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Little Cypress?
From about Nov 8 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Little Cypress's scale — its 9a band and its 312-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Little Cypress'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 Little Cypress’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Little Cypress's own scale — the 2,429 acres it covers and 433 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Little Cypress's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 433 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Little Cypress, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Little Cypress's boundary and the 2,429 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~312-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Little Cypress sits in the South Central Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Little Cypress has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Orange County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Little Cypress's 2,429 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Orange County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Orange 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 Orange County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Little Cypress's 2,429 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Little Cypress you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,429 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Little Cypress-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasLittle Cypress sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides