Lorena, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Lorena, 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 Lorena 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 Lorena — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lorena — the short answer
Lorena, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 286 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 18
- McLennan County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 1
- McLennan County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~286
- McLennan County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City 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 McLennan County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Lorena's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lorena's 286-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lorena
Each reading below is measured for Lorena itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLorena runs about 286 days between hard freezes (read from McLennan County, the closest normal to Lorena) — 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
MeasuredLorena 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 Lorena is in
Lorena sits in the Texas Blackland Prairies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lorena's own centroid rather than borrowed from McLennan County.
What Grows in Lorena
Every plant below cleared Lorena's own zone 8b and its 286-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lorena?
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 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Lorena
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lorena. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TOMMYS 20Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- FASTIME CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- LORENA ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- BROOKSHIRE BROTHERS 63Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- LORENA FACILITYToxics Release Inventory · 2.1 mi
- PRECINCT 1 HEADQUARTERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- CITY OF BRUCEVILLE EDDYPFAS · 2.4 mi
- GATOR STOP 3Underground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- WACO TRAVEL STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- LORENA MINIT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- HEWITT GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- BUSHS STOP & SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lorena'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 Lorena.
Total Sites
272
within ~10 miles of Lorena
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
35 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lorena
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lorena
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lorena, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lorena — Toxics Release Inventory (35 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Lorena
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 Lorena average
Your land is one point inside Lorena
Everything above resolves to Lorena as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from McLennan 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 Lorena Average
Lorena Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Lorena
- ●One soil character for all of Lorena
- ●Frost dates read at Lorena's scale: Feb 18 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lorena's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lorena
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lorena, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lorena averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lorena — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lorena average
How we know this about Lorena
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 McLennan 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 Lorena
When does frost risk typically end in Lorena?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lorena typically lands around Feb 18, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Lorena?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lorena typically arrives around Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 17, so the watching starts about Nov 1 — about 286 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lorena?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lorena sees about 286 frost-free days — roughly Feb 18 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 11 to Nov 17, about 251 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lorena?
The federal record around Lorena is a meaningful one — 272 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (161), 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 Lorena?
From about Nov 1 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lorena's scale — its 8b band and its 286-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lorena'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 Lorena’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Lorena's own scale — the 2,465 acres it covers and 272 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lorena's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 272 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lorena, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lorena's boundary and the 2,465 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~286-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lorena's own centroid, the Texas Blackland PrairiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Lorena has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom McLennan County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lorena's 2,465 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom McLennan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom McLennan 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 McLennan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lorena's 2,465 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lorena you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,465 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 Lorena-wide figureread your own land →
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