Rising Star, 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.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rising Star, 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 Rising Star 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 Rising Star — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rising Star — the short answer
Rising Star, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 248 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 16
- Eastland County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- Eastland County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~248
- Eastland County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Eastland County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Rising Star's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rising Star's 248-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rising Star
Each reading below is measured for Rising Star itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsRising Star runs about 248 days between hard freezes (read from Eastland County, the closest normal to Rising Star) — 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
MeasuredRising Star 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 Rising Star is in
Rising Star sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Rising Star's own centroid rather than borrowed from Eastland County.
What Grows in Rising Star
Every plant below cleared Rising Star's own zone 8a and its 248-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rising Star?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — 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 Rising Star
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rising Star. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FINA SERV STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- BUTLER TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- H & H TIRE & AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- RISING STAR EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- AMERICAN LEGION POST 433Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- TAYLOR FOOD MART 2084Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR # 10976Brownfields · 1600 ft
- RISING STAR TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- HARRIS DAIRY FARMCAFO · 3.9 mi
- J & H STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.5 mi
- BOSMA DAIRYCAFO · 9.5 mi
Measured from Rising Star'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 Rising Star.
Total Sites
11
within ~10 miles of Rising Star
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rising Star
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rising Star
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Large animal operations push nitrates and bacteria downstream. Below one, test your water.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Rising Star
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 Rising Star average
Your land is one point inside Rising Star
Everything above resolves to Rising Star as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Eastland County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 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 Rising Star Average
Rising Star Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Rising Star
- ●One soil character for all of Rising Star
- ●Frost dates read at Rising Star's scale: Mar 16 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rising Star's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rising Star
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rising Star, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rising Star averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rising Star — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rising Star average
How we know this about Rising Star
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 Eastland 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 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 Rising Star
When does frost risk typically end in Rising Star?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rising Star typically lands around Mar 16, 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 Apr 6.
When is the first frost in Rising Star?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rising Star typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 248 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rising Star?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rising Star sees about 248 frost-free days — roughly Mar 16 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 6 to Nov 5, about 213 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rising Star?
The federal record around Rising Star is light — 11 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (8), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Rising Star?
From about Oct 20 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rising Star's scale — its 8a band and its 248-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rising Star'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 Rising Star’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Rising Star's own scale — the 1,105 acres it covers and 11 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rising Star's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 11 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rising Star, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rising Star's boundary and the 1,105 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~248-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rising Star's own centroid, the Cross TimbersUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Rising Star has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Eastland County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rising Star's 1,105 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Eastland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Eastland 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 Eastland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rising Star's 1,105 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rising Star you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,105 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 Rising Star-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasRising Star sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides