Orange, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Orange, 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 Orange 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 Orange — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Orange — the short answer
Orange, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 312 days between hard freezes, across 14K acres of city.
- 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
- City area
- 14K 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 Orange's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Orange's 312-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Orange
Each reading below is measured for Orange itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsOrange runs about 312 days between hard freezes (read from Orange County, the closest normal to Orange) — 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
MeasuredOrange 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 Orange is in
Orange sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Orange's own centroid rather than borrowed from Orange County.
What Grows in Orange
Every plant below cleared Orange'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 Orange?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Orange
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Orange. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KINGS INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- THE CRAB TRAPUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- STATELINE CHEVRON FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- TRACTOR SUPPLY #1194Brownfields · 850 ft
- TEXAS NATIONAL GUARD ARMORYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- PACKO 4Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- TRI-CONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- INTERNATIONAL PAPER ORANGE MILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SABINE RIVER AUTHORITY GULF COASTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- TEXAS COUNTRY STORE 1Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- JERRYS SPECIALTY AUTOBrownfields · 2200 ft
- NORTHERN SERV CTRBrownfields · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Orange'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 Orange.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Orange
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Orange
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Orange, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Orange — PFAS (6 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (29 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 Orange
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 Orange average
Your land is one point inside Orange
Everything above resolves to Orange as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 14K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Orange 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 Orange Average
Orange Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Orange
- ●One soil character for all of Orange
- ●Frost dates read at Orange's scale: Jan 30 to Dec 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Orange's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Orange
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Orange, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Orange averages can't show:
We read public map data around Orange — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Orange average
How we know this about Orange
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 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 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 Orange
When does frost risk typically end in Orange?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Orange 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 Orange?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Orange 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 Orange?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Orange 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 Orange?
The federal record around Orange is a meaningful one — 464 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (239), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Orange?
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 Orange's scale — its 9a band and its 312-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Orange'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 Orange’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Orange's own scale — the 13,652 acres it covers and 464 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Orange's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 464 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Orange, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Orange's boundary and the 13,652 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~312-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Orange's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Orange 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 Orange's 13,652 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 Orange's 13,652 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Orange you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 13,652 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Orange-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasOrange sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides