Pasadena, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Pasadena, 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 Pasadena 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 Pasadena — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Pasadena — the short answer
Pasadena, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 323 days between hard freezes, across 28K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 28
- Harris County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 17
- Harris County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~323
- Harris County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 28K 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 Harris County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Pasadena's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pasadena's 323-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pasadena
Each reading below is measured for Pasadena itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPasadena runs about 323 days between hard freezes (read from Harris County, the closest normal to Pasadena) — 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
MeasuredPasadena sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b.
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 Pasadena is in
Pasadena sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Pasadena's own centroid rather than borrowed from Harris County.
What Grows in Pasadena
Every plant below cleared Pasadena's own zone 9b and its 323-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pasadena?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 17 — 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 Pasadena
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pasadena. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EAST ELLINGTON CENTRAL OFFICE WK9042Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- COUNTRY FOOD STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- TARGET STORE T1396Brownfields · 1900 ft
- MURPHY USA 5660Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- SUPERIOR CLEANERSBrownfields · 2300 ft
- HEB 473Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- TIMEWISE EXXON 855Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- TPG 244 05Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HOME DEPOT STORE 565Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- PEP BOYS 296Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- LOWES OF PASADENA 1053Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- K AND K COMPRESSION INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pasadena'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 Pasadena.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pasadena
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pasadena
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pasadena, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pasadena — Toxics Release Inventory (360 sites) and Superfund (40 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Pasadena
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 Pasadena average
Your land is one point inside Pasadena
Everything above resolves to Pasadena as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 28K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Harris 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 Pasadena Average
Pasadena Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Pasadena
- ●One soil character for all of Pasadena
- ●Frost dates read at Pasadena's scale: Jan 28 to Dec 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pasadena's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pasadena
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pasadena, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pasadena averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pasadena — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pasadena average
How we know this about Pasadena
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 Harris 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 Pasadena
When does frost risk typically end in Pasadena?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pasadena typically lands around Jan 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Pasadena?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pasadena typically arrives around Dec 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 3, so the watching starts about Nov 17 — about 323 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pasadena?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pasadena sees about 323 frost-free days — roughly Jan 28 through Dec 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 18 to Dec 3, about 288 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pasadena?
The federal record around Pasadena runs heavier than most — 2,971 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,633), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Pasadena?
From about Nov 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pasadena's scale — its 9b band and its 323-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pasadena'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 Pasadena’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Pasadena's own scale — the 27,962 acres it covers and 2,971 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pasadena's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 2,971 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pasadena, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pasadena's boundary and the 27,962 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~323-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pasadena's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Pasadena has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Harris County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pasadena's 27,962 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Harris County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Harris 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 Harris County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pasadena's 27,962 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pasadena you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 27,962 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 Pasadena-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasPasadena sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides