West Orange, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in West 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 West 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 West Orange — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
West Orange — the short answer
West Orange, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 312 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- 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
- 2K 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 9b is West Orange's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against West 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 West Orange
Each reading below is measured for West Orange itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsWest Orange runs about 312 days between hard freezes (read from Orange County, the closest normal to West 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
MeasuredWest Orange 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 West Orange is in
West Orange sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at West Orange's own centroid rather than borrowed from Orange County.
What Grows in West Orange
Every plant below cleared West Orange's own zone 9b and its 312-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in West 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. 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 West Orange
Closest first, within ~10 miles of West Orange. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BLOUNTS AUTOBrownfields · 800 ft
- WESTERN AVE 66Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- MARKS KOUNTRY KORNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- MOTTS SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WEST ORANGE CAR WASH & MIRRORUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BRAND SABINE INDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- A SCHULMAN INCORPORATED DISPERSIONS DIVISIONToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- A SCHULMAN INCORPORATED DISPERSIONS DIVISIONBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- SPECTOR WRECKING & SALVAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SOAPY SAMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- GE WATER & PROCESS TECHNOLOGIES ORANGE FACILITYBrownfields · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from West 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 West Orange.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of West Orange
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of West Orange
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around West Orange, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of West Orange — PFAS (5 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 West 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 West Orange average
Your land is one point inside West Orange
Everything above resolves to West Orange as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K 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 West Orange Average
West Orange Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across West Orange
- ●One soil character for all of West Orange
- ●Frost dates read at West Orange's scale: Jan 30 to Dec 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not West Orange's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in West Orange
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in West Orange, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that West Orange averages can't show:
We read public map data around West Orange — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the West Orange average
How we know this about West 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 West Orange
When does frost risk typically end in West Orange?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in West 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 West Orange?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in West 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 West Orange?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, West 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 West Orange?
The federal record around West Orange runs heavier than most — 451 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (228), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 West 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 West Orange's scale — its 9b band and its 312-day season. Your yard writes its own version of West 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 West Orange’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at West Orange's own scale — the 2,177 acres it covers and 451 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- West Orange's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 451 documented contamination sites on the federal record near West Orange, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- West Orange's boundary and the 2,177 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~312-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at West Orange's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — West 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 West Orange's 2,177 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 West Orange's 2,177 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of West 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 2,177 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 West Orange-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasWest Orange sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides