Dana Point, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include artichoke, meyer lemon, california poppy, and cabbage, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Dana Point, 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 Dana Point 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 Dana Point — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dana Point — the short answer
Dana Point, California: USDA zone 10b, no 28°F killing freeze on record — the season is year-round, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 10b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Killing freeze
- None on record
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, this town’s own record
- City area
- 4K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. The year-round finding is measured — a 30-year record with no 28°F killing freeze in it — never inferred from missing dates.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10b is Dana Point's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dana Point's no killing freeze on record, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dana Point
Each reading below is measured for Dana Point itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Winter hardiness
MeasuredDana Point sits in USDA hardiness zone 10b.
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 Dana Point is in
Dana Point sits in the Southern California/Northern Baja Coast — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Dana Point's own centroid rather than borrowed from Orange County.
What Grows in Dana Point
Every plant below cleared Dana Point's own zone 10b. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
What's on the federal record near Dana Point
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dana Point. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DON STENERSONBrownfields · 1300 ft
- BEN WILSONBrownfields · 1600 ft
- EDWARD LANGBrownfields · 1700 ft
- HELLEN FUKAMIZUBrownfields · 1700 ft
- SHIRLEY SHAWBrownfields · 1700 ft
- MONTELEONE, PHILIPBrownfields · 1800 ft
- 33262 MARINA VISTA DRIVEBrownfields · 1800 ft
- VIRGINIA BREDTHAUERBrownfields · 1800 ft
- BROOKS KINGBrownfields · 1900 ft
- CITY OF DANA POINTBrownfields · 2000 ft
- ALBERTSONS 2558Brownfields · 2100 ft
- KEVIN DAHLGRENBrownfields · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dana Point'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 Dana Point.
Total Sites
1,983
within ~10 miles of Dana Point
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dana Point
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dana Point
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dana Point, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 1,801 sites within ~10 miles of Dana Point. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Dana Point
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 Dana Point average
Your land is one point inside Dana Point
Everything above resolves to Dana Point as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K acres. 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 Dana Point Average
Dana Point Average
- ●USDA Zones 10b, averaged across Dana Point
- ●One soil character for all of Dana Point
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dana Point's 10b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dana Point
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dana Point, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dana Point averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dana Point — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dana Point average
How we know this about Dana Point
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, with the labelled statewide window where none resolves; 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 Dana Point
Is it too late to plant in Dana Point?
No — Dana Point has no 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record, so the growing season is year-round and there is no last-frost date to wait for. Planting is paced by rainfall, heat and daylength instead of by frost: start heat-lovers any month, and time cool-season crops (lettuce, brassicas, peas) for the cooler, wetter half of the year or for higher ground. Succession sowing every few weeks works all year, so the limit is what you can keep watered and harvested, not the calendar.
When does frost risk typically end in Dana Point?
It doesn't — Dana Point records no 28°F killing freeze at all across the 1991–2020 station record, so there is no spring frost date to plant after. Cold still matters with elevation: the higher you garden, the cooler the nights, and a few tropical crops sulk below about 60°F even where they never freeze.
How long is the growing season in Dana Point?
Year-round — the 1991–2020 station record for Dana Point contains no 28°F killing freeze, so there is no season to measure between freezes. What paces planting instead is heat, rainfall and daylength: the hottest, wettest stretch is the hard part for cool-season crops, not winter. Elevation is the one real exception — the higher you garden, the colder the nights get.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dana Point?
The federal record around Dana Point is a meaningful one — 1,983 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,801), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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.
Everything above is measured at Dana Point's scale — its 10b band and its no killing freeze on record. Your yard writes its own version of Dana Point'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 Dana Point’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Dana Point's own scale — the 4,151 acres it covers and 1,983 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dana Point's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10bUSDA PHZM 2023
- No 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record covering Dana Point — a year-round growing seasonNOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- 1,983 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dana Point, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dana Point's boundary and the 4,151 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear Dana Point's hardiness zoneGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dana Point's own centroid, the Southern California/Northern Baja CoastUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dana Point's 4,151 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 California grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom California
- 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 Dana Point's 4,151 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dana Point you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,151 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 Dana Point-wide figureread your own land →