Floriston, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Floriston, 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 Floriston 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 Floriston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Floriston — the short answer
Floriston, California: USDA zone 6b, about 138 days between hard freezes, across 608 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~138
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 608 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 6b is Floriston's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Floriston's 138-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Floriston
Each reading below is measured for Floriston itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFloriston runs about 138 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredFloriston sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Floriston is in
Floriston sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Floriston's own centroid rather than borrowed from Nevada County.
What Grows in Floriston
Every plant below cleared Floriston's own zone 6b and its 138-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Floriston?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Floriston
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Floriston. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LIBERTY UTILITIESBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Truckee River RV ParkUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- 018N017E34F001MNitrate · 3.9 mi
- AT&T MOBILITYBrownfields · 4.0 mi
- OTTO SMYTHBrownfields · 5.3 mi
- 017N017E09A001MNitrate · 5.3 mi
- SCOTT H VAN METRE DBA C H VAN METRE & SONBrownfields · 7.1 mi
- TEICHERT AGGREGATES MARTISBrownfields · 7.1 mi
- TEICHERT AGGREGATES MARTISToxics Release Inventory · 7.1 mi
- TAHOE TRUCKEE SANITATION AGENCYBrownfields · 7.1 mi
- PACIFIC BELLBrownfields · 7.3 mi
- 017N016E01H001MNitrate · 7.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Floriston'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 Floriston.
Total Sites
149
within ~10 miles of Floriston
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Floriston
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Floriston
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Floriston
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 Floriston average
Your land is one point inside Floriston
Everything above resolves to Floriston as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 608 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 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 Floriston Average
Floriston Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Floriston
- ●One soil character for all of Floriston
- ●Frost dates read at Floriston's scale: May 23 to Oct 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Floriston's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Floriston
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Floriston, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Floriston averages can't show:
We read public map data around Floriston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Floriston average
How we know this about Floriston
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 Floriston’s own record; 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 Floriston
When does frost risk typically end in Floriston?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Floriston typically lands around May 23, 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 Jun 13.
When is the first frost in Floriston?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Floriston typically arrives around Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 24, so the watching starts about Sep 8 — about 138 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Floriston?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Floriston sees about 138 frost-free days — roughly May 23 through Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 13 to Sep 24, about 103 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Floriston?
The federal record around Floriston is a meaningful one — 149 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (71), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 gardeners stretch the season in Floriston?
With about 138 frost-free days between hard freezes, Floriston rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 166 to 194 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 23 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Floriston's scale — its 6b band and its 138-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Floriston'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 Floriston’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Floriston's own scale — its own ~138-day season between 28°F freezes, the 608 acres it covers and 149 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Floriston's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Floriston's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 23 and Oct 8 and the ~138-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 149 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Floriston, the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Floriston's boundary and the 608 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~138-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Floriston's own centroid, the Sierra NevadaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Floriston's 608 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nevada County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Nevada 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 Nevada County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Floriston's 608 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Floriston you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 608 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 Floriston-wide figureread your own land →
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