Cross City, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cross City, 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 Cross City 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 Cross City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cross City — the short answer
Cross City, Florida: USDA zone 9a, about 303 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 7
- Dixie County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 7
- Dixie County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~303
- Dixie County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Dixie County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Cross City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cross City's 303-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cross City
Each reading below is measured for Cross City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCross City runs about 303 days between hard freezes (read from Dixie County, the closest normal to Cross City) — 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
MeasuredCross City sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Cross City is in
Cross City sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cross City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dixie County.
What Grows in Cross City
Every plant below cleared Cross City's own zone 9a and its 303-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cross City?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 7 — 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 Cross City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cross City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BELLSOUTH TEL INC #31067 CSCYFLBAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- SOUTHERN PINE DISTILLERSSuperfund · 1200 ft
- CONTINENTAL TURPENTINE & ROSINSuperfund · 1200 ft
- DEK KAT BOATS LLCBrownfields · 1300 ft
- JIFFY STORE #1555Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CROSS CITY NURSING AND REHABILITATION CENTERBrownfields · 1300 ft
- DIXIE CNTY SCHOOL BD-BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- DIXIE CNTY CROSS CITY AIRPORT BD OF COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CROSS CITY ONE LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- UNION 76-WAYNESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- PO BOYS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- ANDERSON COLUMBIA CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cross City'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 Cross City.
Total Sites
73
within ~10 miles of Cross City
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cross City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cross City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cross City, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Cross City. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Cross City
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 Cross City average
Your land is one point inside Cross City
Everything above resolves to Cross City as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Dixie County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 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 Cross City Average
Cross City Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Cross City
- ●One soil character for all of Cross City
- ●Frost dates read at Cross City's scale: Feb 7 to Dec 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cross City's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cross City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cross City, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cross City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cross City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cross City average
How we know this about Cross City
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 Dixie 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 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 Cross City
When does frost risk typically end in Cross City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cross City typically lands around Feb 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Cross City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cross City typically arrives around Dec 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 23, so the watching starts about Nov 7 — about 303 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cross City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cross City sees about 303 frost-free days — roughly Feb 7 through Dec 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 28 to Nov 23, about 268 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cross City?
The federal record around Cross City is a meaningful one — 73 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (38), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cross City?
From about Nov 7 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cross City's scale — its 9a band and its 303-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cross City'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 Cross City’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Cross City's own scale — the 1,181 acres it covers and 73 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cross City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 73 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cross City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cross City's boundary and the 1,181 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~303-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cross City's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Cross City has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Dixie County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cross City's 1,181 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dixie County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dixie 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 Dixie County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cross City's 1,181 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cross City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,181 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Cross City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Florida
Wider growing context
What grows across FloridaCross City sits outside our named growing regions, so Florida as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides