Loraine, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Loraine, 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 Loraine 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 Loraine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Loraine — the short answer
Loraine, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 256 days between hard freezes, across 665 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~256
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 665 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Loraine's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Loraine's 256-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Loraine
Each reading below is measured for Loraine itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLoraine runs about 256 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredLoraine 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 Loraine is in
Loraine sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Loraine's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mitchell County.
What Grows in Loraine
Every plant below cleared Loraine's own zone 8a and its 256-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Loraine?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Loraine
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Loraine. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JOHN COXUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- VON ROEDER SEED FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- PANFILO GARCIAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- ETHEREDGE FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.2 mi
- GAS N GRUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.5 mi
- STRIPES 2459Underground Storage Tanks · 7.7 mi
- JOE WEAVER CHEVROLETUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.7 mi
- UNIVERSAL WELL SERVICE 230320Underground Storage Tanks · 7.7 mi
- VILLEGAS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.9 mi
- BILLS TRUCK TOWNUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.9 mi
- CITY MAINTENANCE BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.0 mi
- B & B ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Loraine'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 Loraine.
Total Sites
36
within ~10 miles of Loraine
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Loraine
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Loraine
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Loraine, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 29 sites within ~10 miles of Loraine. 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 Loraine
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 Loraine average
Your land is one point inside Loraine
Everything above resolves to Loraine as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 665 acres. 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 Loraine Average
Loraine Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Loraine
- ●One soil character for all of Loraine
- ●Frost dates read at Loraine's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Loraine's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Loraine
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Loraine, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Loraine averages can't show:
We read public map data around Loraine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Loraine average
How we know this about Loraine
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 Loraine’s own record; 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 Loraine
When does frost risk typically end in Loraine?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Loraine typically lands around Mar 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Loraine?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Loraine typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 256 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Loraine?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Loraine sees about 256 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 6, about 221 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Loraine?
The federal record around Loraine is light — 36 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (29), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles 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 Loraine?
From about Oct 21 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Loraine's scale — its 8a band and its 256-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Loraine'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 Loraine’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Loraine's own scale — its own ~256-day season between 28°F freezes, the 665 acres it covers and 36 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Loraine's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Loraine's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 9 and Nov 20 and the ~256-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 36 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Loraine, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Loraine's boundary and the 665 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~256-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Loraine's own centroid, the Southwestern TablelandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Loraine's 665 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mitchell County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mitchell 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 Mitchell County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Loraine's 665 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Loraine you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 665 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Loraine-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasLoraine sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides