The Woodlands, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 The Woodlands, 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 The Woodlands 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 The Woodlands — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
The Woodlands — the short answer
The Woodlands, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 306 days between hard freezes, across 28K acres of town.
- 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
- Town 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 Montgomery County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is The Woodlands's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against The Woodlands's 306-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in The Woodlands
Each reading below is measured for The Woodlands itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsThe Woodlands runs about 306 days between hard freezes (read from Montgomery County, the closest normal to The Woodlands) — 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
MeasuredThe Woodlands 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 The Woodlands is in
The Woodlands sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at The Woodlands's own centroid rather than borrowed from Montgomery County.
What Grows in The Woodlands
Every plant below cleared The Woodlands'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 The Woodlands?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Documented around The Woodlands
Survey cells within 31 miles of The Woodlands checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 483 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near The Woodlands
Closest first, within ~10 miles of The Woodlands. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TS-60-52-610Nitrate · 1500 ft
- TS-60-52-614Nitrate · 1500 ft
- TPG 204 05Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- TIMEWISE EXXON 805Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- CVS PHARMACY 7426Brownfields · 2300 ft
- THE WOODLANDS MUD 1PFAS · 0.5 mi
- MONTGOMERY COUNTY MUD 60PFAS · 0.5 mi
- WASH DEPOT 65Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WOODLANDS SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FIRE STATION 2Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- WOODLANDS GROUNDS MAINTENANCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- KROGER #316-34Brownfields · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from The Woodlands'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 The Woodlands.
Total Sites
790
within ~10 miles of The Woodlands
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of The Woodlands
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of The Woodlands
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around The Woodlands, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of The Woodlands — PFAS (47 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (526 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in The Woodlands
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 Woodlands average
Your land is one point inside The Woodlands
Everything above resolves to The Woodlands as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 28K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Montgomery 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 The Woodlands Average
The Woodlands Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across The Woodlands
- ●One soil character for all of The Woodlands
- ●Frost dates read at The Woodlands's scale: Feb 3 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not The Woodlands's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in The Woodlands
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in The Woodlands, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Woodlands averages can't show:
We read public map data around The Woodlands — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Woodlands average
How we know this about The Woodlands
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 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 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 The Woodlands
When does frost risk typically end in The Woodlands?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in The Woodlands 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 The Woodlands?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in The Woodlands 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 The Woodlands?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, The Woodlands 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 The Woodlands?
The federal record around The Woodlands runs heavier than most — 790 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (526), the nearest Nitrate 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 The Woodlands?
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 The Woodlands's scale — its 9a band and its 306-day season. Your yard writes its own version of The Woodlands'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 The Woodlands’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at The Woodlands's own scale — the 27,696 acres it covers and 790 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- The Woodlands's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 790 documented contamination sites on the federal record near The Woodlands, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- The Woodlands's boundary and the 27,696 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 The Woodlands's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around The Woodlands checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — The Woodlands 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 The Woodlands's 27,696 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 The Woodlands's 27,696 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of The Woodlands you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 27,696 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 The Woodlands-wide figureread your own land →
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