Flomaton, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Flomaton, 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 Flomaton 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 Flomaton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Flomaton — the short answer
Flomaton, Alabama: USDA zone 8b, about 280 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 22
- Escambia County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- Escambia County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~280
- Escambia County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Escambia County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Flomaton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Flomaton's 280-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Flomaton
Each reading below is measured for Flomaton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsFlomaton runs about 280 days between hard freezes (read from Escambia County, the closest normal to Flomaton) — 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
MeasuredFlomaton sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Flomaton is in
Flomaton sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Flomaton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Escambia County.
What Grows in Flomaton
Every plant below cleared Flomaton's own zone 8b and its 280-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Flomaton?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Flomaton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Flomaton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TOM THUMB FOOD STORE #33Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- NORWOOD BP #1Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- T JS TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- NORWOOD BP #2Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CSX TRANSPORTATION, INC.Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- YORK CONVENIENCE STORE #400Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Circle K #2721576Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- BRANTLY'SBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- AIR PRODUCTS & CHEMICALS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- TOWN HALL YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- EVELYN DEAN & DORIS KEESEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- JR FOOD STORE #79Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Flomaton'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 Flomaton.
Total Sites
142
within ~10 miles of Flomaton
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Flomaton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Flomaton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Flomaton, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 91 sites within ~10 miles of Flomaton. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Flomaton
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 Flomaton average
Your land is one point inside Flomaton
Everything above resolves to Flomaton as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Escambia 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 Flomaton Average
Flomaton Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Flomaton
- ●One soil character for all of Flomaton
- ●Frost dates read at Flomaton's scale: Feb 22 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Flomaton's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Flomaton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Flomaton, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Flomaton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Flomaton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Flomaton average
How we know this about Flomaton
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 Escambia 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 Flomaton
When does frost risk typically end in Flomaton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Flomaton typically lands around Feb 22, 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 Mar 15.
When is the first frost in Flomaton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Flomaton typically arrives around Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 15, so the watching starts about Oct 30 — about 280 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Flomaton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Flomaton sees about 280 frost-free days — roughly Feb 22 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 15 to Nov 15, about 245 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Flomaton?
The federal record around Flomaton is a meaningful one — 142 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (91), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Flomaton?
From about Oct 30 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Flomaton's scale — its 8b band and its 280-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Flomaton'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 Flomaton’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Flomaton's own scale — the 3,254 acres it covers and 142 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Flomaton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 142 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Flomaton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Flomaton's boundary and the 3,254 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~280-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Flomaton's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Flomaton has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Escambia County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Flomaton's 3,254 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Escambia County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Escambia County
- The growing challenges every Alabama grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Alabama
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Escambia County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Flomaton's 3,254 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Flomaton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,254 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Flomaton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alabama
Wider growing context
What grows across AlabamaFlomaton sits outside our named growing regions, so Alabama as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides