Pasadena, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: artichoke, meyer lemon, california poppy, and cabbage. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Pasadena, 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 Pasadena 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 Pasadena — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Pasadena — the short answer
Pasadena, California: USDA zone 10b, no 28°F killing freeze on record — the season is year-round, across 15K 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
- 15K 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 Pasadena's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pasadena'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 Pasadena
Each reading below is measured for Pasadena itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Winter hardiness
MeasuredPasadena 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 Pasadena is in
Pasadena sits in the Southern California/Northern Baja Coast — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Pasadena's own centroid rather than borrowed from Los Angeles County.
What Grows in Pasadena
Every plant below cleared Pasadena's own zone 10b. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
What's on the federal record near Pasadena
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pasadena. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JONATHAN RUANEBrownfields · 800 ft
- MADISON ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 900 ft
- YOUTH MOVING ON NON PROFIT OAKLAND SUMMIT APTSBrownfields · 1400 ft
- O'REILLY AUTO PARTS #3033Brownfields · 1600 ft
- NEW ERA CLEANERSBrownfields · 1600 ft
- FREMONT & PURDON INC DBA FREMONT & PURDON AUTO BODY & PAINTBrownfields · 1700 ft
- PASADENA CALASSIC CARBrownfields · 1700 ft
- ORANGE GROVE MUFFLERBrownfields · 1800 ft
- FREMONT & PURDON INCBrownfields · 1800 ft
- NEW CINGULAR WIRELESS PCS, LLC DBA AT&TBrownfields · 1800 ft
- DANNY VILLELABrownfields · 1800 ft
- GERALD MARVIN ERICKSEN AND JOANN FAYE WILSON DBA IMPORT AUTO WORKSBrownfields · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pasadena'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 Pasadena.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pasadena
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pasadena
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pasadena, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 6,914 sites within ~10 miles of Pasadena. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Pasadena
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 Pasadena average
Your land is one point inside Pasadena
Everything above resolves to Pasadena as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 15K 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 Pasadena Average
Pasadena Average
- ●USDA Zones 10b, averaged across Pasadena
- ●One soil character for all of Pasadena
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pasadena's 10b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pasadena
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pasadena, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pasadena averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pasadena — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pasadena average
How we know this about Pasadena
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 Pasadena
Is it too late to plant in Pasadena?
No — Pasadena 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 Pasadena?
It doesn't — Pasadena 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 Pasadena?
Year-round — the 1991–2020 station record for Pasadena 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 Pasadena?
The federal record around Pasadena runs heavier than most — 7,721 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (6,914), 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.
Everything above is measured at Pasadena's scale — its 10b band and its no killing freeze on record. Your yard writes its own version of Pasadena'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 Pasadena’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pasadena's own scale — the 14,694 acres it covers and 7,721 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pasadena's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10bUSDA PHZM 2023
- No 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record covering Pasadena — a year-round growing seasonNOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- 7,721 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pasadena, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pasadena's boundary and the 14,694 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear Pasadena's hardiness zoneGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pasadena'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 Pasadena's 14,694 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Los Angeles County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Los Angeles 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 Los Angeles County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pasadena's 14,694 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pasadena you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 14,694 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 Pasadena-wide figureread your own land →