Waller, 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.
The conditions favor artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Waller, 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 Waller 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 Waller — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Waller — the short answer
Waller, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 301 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 6
- Waller County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 4
- Waller County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~301
- Waller County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Waller County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Waller's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Waller's 301-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Waller
Each reading below is measured for Waller itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsWaller runs about 301 days between hard freezes (read from Waller County, the closest normal to Waller) — 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
MeasuredWaller 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 Waller is in
Waller sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Waller's own centroid rather than borrowed from Waller County.
What Grows in Waller
Every plant below cleared Waller's own zone 9a and its 301-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Waller?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
Documented around Waller
Survey cells within 31 miles of Waller checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 509 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Waller
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Waller. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BUC-EES 18Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- WALLER COUNTY LINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- EVERYDAY 4Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- H W GARRETTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WALLER ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- G & W WSCPFAS · 0.8 mi
- CITY OF WALLERPFAS · 0.8 mi
- NAVCO APPLIANCE WASHER & DRYER REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CALHOUNS GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- COUNTRY MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BETTISUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- WALLER IMPLEMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Waller'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 Waller.
Total Sites
163
within ~10 miles of Waller
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
16 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Waller
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Waller
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Waller, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Waller — PFAS (5 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (16 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.
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 Waller
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 Waller average
Your land is one point inside Waller
Everything above resolves to Waller as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Waller 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 Waller Average
Waller Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Waller
- ●One soil character for all of Waller
- ●Frost dates read at Waller's scale: Feb 6 to Dec 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Waller's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Waller
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Waller, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Waller averages can't show:
We read public map data around Waller — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Waller average
How we know this about Waller
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 Waller 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 Waller
When does frost risk typically end in Waller?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Waller typically lands around Feb 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Waller?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Waller typically arrives around Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 20, so the watching starts about Nov 4 — about 301 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Waller?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Waller sees about 301 frost-free days — roughly Feb 6 through Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 27 to Nov 20, about 266 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Waller?
The federal record around Waller is a meaningful one — 163 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (101), 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 Waller?
From about Nov 4 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Waller's scale — its 9a band and its 301-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Waller'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 Waller’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Waller's own scale — the 3,917 acres it covers and 163 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Waller's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 163 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Waller, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Waller's boundary and the 3,917 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~301-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Waller's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Waller checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Waller has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Waller County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Waller's 3,917 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Waller County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Waller 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 Waller County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Waller's 3,917 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Waller you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,917 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 Waller-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasWaller sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides