Magnolia, 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.
Crops well matched to these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Magnolia, 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 Magnolia 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 Magnolia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Magnolia — the short answer
Magnolia, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 306 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 3
- Montgomery County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- Montgomery County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~306
- Montgomery County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Montgomery County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Magnolia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Magnolia's 306-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Magnolia
Each reading below is measured for Magnolia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMagnolia runs about 306 days between hard freezes (read from Montgomery County, the closest normal to Magnolia) — 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
MeasuredMagnolia 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 Magnolia is in
Magnolia sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Magnolia's own centroid rather than borrowed from Montgomery County.
What Grows in Magnolia
Every plant below cleared Magnolia's own zone 9a and its 306-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Magnolia?
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 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
Documented around Magnolia
Survey cells within 31 miles of Magnolia checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 497 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Magnolia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Magnolia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FAMILY DOLLAR #5787Brownfields · 2000 ft
- AMATOS 3Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- TRACTOR SUPPLY #1787Brownfields · 2600 ft
- MONTGOMERY COUNTY MAGNOLIA BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- PEDLERS JUNCTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MAGNOLIA ISD TRANSPORTATION DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BROOKSHIRE BROTHERS 48Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SPEEDY EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- LITTLE TUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HANDI STOP 36Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TIMEMAXX 2Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- HANDI PLUS 15Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Magnolia'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 Magnolia.
Total Sites
144
within ~10 miles of Magnolia
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Magnolia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Magnolia
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Magnolia, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Magnolia — PFAS (6 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (9 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Magnolia
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 Magnolia average
Your land is one point inside Magnolia
Everything above resolves to Magnolia as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Montgomery 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 Magnolia Average
Magnolia Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Magnolia
- ●One soil character for all of Magnolia
- ●Frost dates read at Magnolia's scale: Feb 3 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Magnolia's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Magnolia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Magnolia, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Magnolia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Magnolia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Magnolia average
How we know this about Magnolia
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 Montgomery 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 Magnolia
When does frost risk typically end in Magnolia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Magnolia typically lands around Feb 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 Feb 24.
When is the first frost in Magnolia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Magnolia typically arrives around Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 22, so the watching starts about Nov 6 — about 306 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Magnolia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Magnolia sees about 306 frost-free days — roughly Feb 3 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 24 to Nov 22, about 271 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Magnolia?
The federal record around Magnolia is a meaningful one — 144 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (80), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Magnolia?
From about Nov 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Magnolia's scale — its 9a band and its 306-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Magnolia'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 Magnolia’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Magnolia's own scale — the 3,101 acres it covers and 144 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Magnolia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 144 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Magnolia, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Magnolia's boundary and the 3,101 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~306-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Magnolia's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Magnolia checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Magnolia has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Montgomery County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Magnolia's 3,101 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Montgomery County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Montgomery 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 Montgomery County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Magnolia's 3,101 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Magnolia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,101 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Magnolia-wide figureread your own land →
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