Altamonte Springs, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Altamonte Springs, 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 Altamonte Springs 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 Altamonte Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Altamonte Springs — the short answer
Altamonte Springs, Florida: USDA zone 10a, about 333 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 19
- Seminole County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 18
- Seminole County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~333
- Seminole County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 6K 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 Seminole County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is Altamonte Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Altamonte Springs's 333-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Altamonte Springs
Each reading below is measured for Altamonte Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsAltamonte Springs runs about 333 days between hard freezes (read from Seminole County, the closest normal to Altamonte Springs) — 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
MeasuredAltamonte Springs sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a.
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 Altamonte Springs is in
Altamonte Springs sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Altamonte Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Seminole County.
What Grows in Altamonte Springs
Every plant below cleared Altamonte Springs's own zone 10a and its 333-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Altamonte Springs?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Altamonte Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Altamonte Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CVS PHARMACY #7219Brownfields · 500 ft
- FIRESTONE #19CNUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- BRIDGESTONE FIRESTONEBrownfields · 750 ft
- LIMITED TO ENDODONTICSBrownfields · 800 ft
- SHINERS CAR WASHUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- PREMIERE POINT NORTHUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- 7-ELEVEN FOOD STORE #10060Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- DAYS INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- SPEEDWAY #6651Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- FILL'EM FAST #006-08Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- HILTON ORLANDO/ALTAMONTE SPRINGSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CHEVRON AT DOUGLAS & SR 436Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Altamonte Springs'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 Altamonte Springs.
Total Sites
2,684
within ~10 miles of Altamonte Springs
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
29 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Altamonte Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Altamonte Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Altamonte Springs
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 Altamonte Springs average
Your land is one point inside Altamonte Springs
Everything above resolves to Altamonte Springs as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 6K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Seminole County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 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 Altamonte Springs Average
Altamonte Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Altamonte Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Altamonte Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Altamonte Springs's scale: Jan 19 to Dec 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Altamonte Springs's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Altamonte Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Altamonte Springs, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Altamonte Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Altamonte Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Altamonte Springs average
How we know this about Altamonte Springs
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 at Seminole 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 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 Altamonte Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Altamonte Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Altamonte Springs typically lands around Jan 19, 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 Feb 9.
When is the first frost in Altamonte Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Altamonte Springs typically arrives around Dec 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 4, so the watching starts about Nov 18 — about 333 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Altamonte Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Altamonte Springs sees about 333 frost-free days — roughly Jan 19 through Dec 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 9 to Dec 4, about 298 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Altamonte Springs?
The federal record around Altamonte Springs runs heavier than most — 2,684 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,562), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Altamonte Springs?
From about Nov 18 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 Dec 18 (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 Dec 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Altamonte Springs's scale — its 10a band and its 333-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Altamonte Springs'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 Altamonte Springs’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Altamonte Springs's own scale — the 5,840 acres it covers and 2,684 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Altamonte Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 2,684 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Altamonte Springs, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Altamonte Springs's boundary and the 5,840 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 10a and a ~333-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Altamonte Springs's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Altamonte Springs has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Seminole County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Altamonte Springs's 5,840 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Seminole County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Seminole County
- The growing challenges every Florida grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Florida
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Seminole County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Altamonte Springs's 5,840 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Altamonte Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,840 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Altamonte Springs-wide figureread your own land →
More in Florida
Wider growing context
What grows across FloridaAltamonte Springs sits outside our named growing regions, so Florida as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides