Florida spans USDA hardiness zones 8b-12a, with a growing season of about 320 frost-free days — a calendar that barely closes, trading frost worries for heat management and near-continuous harvests.
Behind the zone label sits the real climate engine: 50-65 inches of annual rainfall and a median of roughly 7,743 growing-degree days (base 50°F). Most ground here falls among sandy, muck (Everglades), shell-rock (Keys), and marl, whose drainage habits quietly decide which beds flourish. No single calendar covers Florida: Gulf Coast, Florida Panhandle, and Northeast Florida each open and close their seasons on their own schedule. Expect mango, tomato, orange, and sweet potato to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded inUSDA PHZM•NOAA Climate Normals•USDA NRCS SSURGO•GDD (PRISM 1991-2020 normals)•USDA hardiness sub-region map•EPA FRS•USDA PLANTS•Growable Ground suitability scoring
Florida spans zones 8b-12a, but your yard sits in exactly one — and slope, tree cover, and low spots nudge it further. 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 Florida — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Distinct growing regions within Florida — each has its own zones, soils, and signature crops.
Florida: USDA zones 8b-12a, 281–365 frost-free days depending on the county, 67 counties.
The middle half of this state’s counties. Tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks past the last hard freeze. The shortest-season figure is Florida's own county record — Holmes County's measured 28°F normal, not a modeled floor.
Zone 8b-12a is Florida's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Florida's 320-day season, see what your own ground reads.
One answer for Florida averages 67 counties whose growing seasons are 84 days apart — from 281 frost-free days in Holmes County to 365 in Sarasota County. That is the same state, measured the same way, in the same years. Which end of it your county sits nearer decides what finishes before the first hard freeze.
The middle half of 67 counties runs 300–333 days, with a median of 320 days — a 84-day span end to end.
Measured across 67 counties, each carrying its own 28°F normal. NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020, county 28°F killing freeze. A county with no record of its own is absent from the range rather than counted as zero — nothing here is interpolated to the state. Your own site sits somewhere inside this range; a parcel report resolves where.
The middle half of Florida runs 300–333 frost-free days, and 32 of its 67 counties sit outside that — 16 on the short side, 16 on the long. A statewide planting date describes the middle well and the ends poorly, which is worth knowing before you follow one.
Under 300 frost-free days
16 counties
3 of 16 shown
The end of the state that sets the planting calendar — start seed indoors here and the season stretches to meet the crop.
300–333 frost-free days
35 counties
0 of 35 shown
The middle half of the state, and the part a single statewide date describes well.
Over 333 frost-free days
16 counties
3 of 16 shown
Long enough for a second succession of a quick crop after the first comes out.
Each county is placed by its own 28°F frost-free normal (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020, county 28°F killing freeze), the same figure its own guide page publishes. Elevation, slope and cold-air drainage move a yard within its county as well — which is the part only your address resolves.
The soil types that dominate Florida — how each drains decides more about crop success than almost anything else. Tap any soil to learn what it is and how to work with it. Each photo is a representative profile of that soil type; the named series is where it was documented, which is often another state.
Drainage
Very fast. Water passes through in hours, not days, taking dissolved nutrients along with it.
What thrives
Carrots, radishes, potatoes, and sweet potatoes size up beautifully; melons, watermelon, and herbs like rosemary and thyme love the warmth and the dry feet. Many natives and drought-adapted perennials prefer it outright.
Drainage
It holds water like a sponge by nature; farmed muck is managed with ditches and water control, and it can dry, shrink, and even blow when left bare.
What thrives
Muck is celebrated vegetable ground — onions, celery, carrots, lettuce, and greens grow to prize quality in it. Its loose, black tilth is what root and leaf crops dream of.
Drainage
Instant. Water disappears into the porous rock, and the lime chemistry keeps everything alkaline.
What thrives
Tropical trees famously root right into it — coconut palm, sea grape, gumbo limbo, key lime and other citrus on tolerant rootstocks — finding water in the rock’s own pores.
A lime-rich mix of clay and calcium carbonate laid down in shallow, calm water — soft and pale, historically dug and spread on acid fields as a liming material.
Drainage
Slow. Marl compacts easily and holds water, and its carbonate chemistry keeps the pH firmly alkaline.
What thrives
Lime-loving plants take to it readily — brassicas, spinach, asparagus, figs, and many Mediterranean herbs. Tropical fruits on tolerant rootstocks manage it in the far South.
Soil data: USDA NRCS SSURGO · Soil types explained
Plants well-suited to Florida's climate, soils, and growing season — each links to its full growing profile.
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Across Florida, cool-season planting typically opens about four weeks before the local last hard freeze — county medians put that freeze near Feb 4, with the middle half of counties between Jan 25 and Feb 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals). Tender transplants wait two to three weeks past it, and fall planting counts back from first freezes mostly between Dec 7 and Dec 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
The plants Florida put its name on — cultural emblems, not growing recommendations.
Citrus sinensis
Designated 1909. In our plant library — see its full growing profile.
Sabal palm
Sabal palmetto
Designated 1953.
Plants the USDA PLANTS Database documents as native and present in Florida — a real per-state range, not just a zone match. Ordered by how closely each plant’s published hardiness range matches Florida’s zones 8b-12a, so this is a shortlist by climate fit, not a ranking of which plants matter most here. Presence is statewide, so a plant may still be uncommon in your specific county; your state’s Cooperative Extension or a native-plant society is the local authority.
US-native plants whose hardiness range overlaps Florida’s USDA zones 8b-12a but which USDA PLANTS doesn’t map to a single state range here. Zone overlap is a starting filter, not a range map.
What an experienced grower plans around here — each one has a move.
Sandy soils drain too fast and hold few nutrients — frequent fertilization needed
Build organic matter relentlessly — compost and cover crops turn sand into soil that holds both water and food.
Humidity drives fungal diseases (powdery mildew, black spot, rust)
Space plants for airflow, water at the base in the morning, and choose resistant varieties — your extension office lists the proven ones.
Hurricane season (June-November) can destroy plantings
Favor wind-tough perennials, stake young trees properly, and keep fall crops in containers you can move ahead of a storm.
Nematodes are a serious pest in sandy FL soils
Summer solarization and crop-family rotation knock nematodes back — your extension office can confirm the species from a soil sample.
For cultivar selection, pest pressure, and planting-time guidance specific to Florida, the UF/IFAS Extension is the authoritative local source.
Safe to Grow Here?What the federal record shows across Florida — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Florida — 76,189 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 602 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Florida carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Severity Distribution
across Florida
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
Everything above resolves to Florida as a whole — a state whose own counties record seasons 84 days apart, and hardiness across zones 8b-12a. Your parcel sits at one point in that range, not in the middle of it. 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 state 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 statewide average.
State averages sketch the shape. Your soil, sun exposure, drainage, and microclimate decide what actually takes. Pull a site-specific report for your exact parcel.
Enter your address. We read your soil, sun, drainage, and frost dates, then score 1,086 plants against the real conditions on your land.
Three things about your lot that Florida averages can't show:
We read public map data around Florida — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Florida average
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read per county and aggregated to the state band; the growing season from NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS 1991–2020 28°F normals, read at each county’s own record; rainfall from NOAA Climate Normals; soils from USDA NRCS SSURGO; boundaries from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination record from the federal sources named in that beat above. Where a county carries no record of its own, it is absent from the figure rather than filled in.
Florida spans USDA hardiness zones 8b-12a — which is to say winter's coldest night runs from about 15°F to 55°F depending where in Florida you are, averaged over 1991–2020 (USDA PHZM 2023).
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Across Florida, cool-season planting typically opens about four weeks before the local last hard freeze — county medians put that freeze near Feb 4, with the middle half of counties between Jan 25 and Feb 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals). Tender transplants wait two to three weeks past it, and fall planting counts back from first freezes mostly between Dec 7 and Dec 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Across Florida, the middle half of counties see their last hard freeze (28°F) between about Jan 25 and Feb 10, with a county median near Feb 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals). 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 25.
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, growing seasons across Florida's counties mostly run about 301 to 333 days, with a county median near 320 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals). Tender crops get a somewhat shorter practical window, since lighter frosts reach a few weeks past the hard-freeze dates on both ends.
Florida's zones 8b-12a support a wide range — strong performers include Mango, Tomato, Orange, Sweet Potato, and Banana. What actually takes on any one site comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage, and we score each plant against the real conditions at your address.
Officially, Florida spans USDA zones 8b-12a (USDA PHZM 2023) — but a zone is a 30-year average of winter's coldest night across an area, and it can't see any one yard. A south-facing slope, a tree line, or a low frost pocket can shift a single site by half a zone either way, which is why neighboring gardeners often quote different numbers. We read the conditions at your exact address — soil, sun, slope, and frost — and score 1,086 plants against what's actually there.
The federal record across Florida runs heavier than most — 76,189 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (38,399) — 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.
Start with three facts. Florida spans USDA zones 8b-12a, which sets what survives winter; last hard freezes range from about Jan 25 to Feb 10 across its counties (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and 76,189 documented sites sit on the federal record here, so a soil test before food beds is the smart first step. From there, matching plants to your actual soil and sun is the fun part.
Everything above is measured at Florida's scale — its 8b-12a band and its 320-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Florida's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
6 of the readings below were taken at Florida's own scale — the full zone 8b-12a span inside its borders, the 4 soil types that dominate its ground and 76,189 documented sites on its federal record; anything it cannot resolve at this scale is named below.
Measured here
What this page can’t tell you
Explore growing conditions by county — each has its own zone range and land area.
Explore growing conditions by city or town in Florida.
Florida shares its dominant growing region with these states — a useful comparison if you're weighing where a crop will behave the same way.
