Five Points, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Five Points, 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 Five Points 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 Five Points — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Five Points — the short answer
Five Points, Florida: USDA zone 9a, about 308 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 4
- Columbia County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 9
- Columbia County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~308
- Columbia 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 Columbia County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Five Points's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Five Points's 308-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Five Points
Each reading below is measured for Five Points itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsFive Points runs about 308 days between hard freezes (read from Columbia County, the closest normal to Five Points) — 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
MeasuredFive Points 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 Five Points is in
Five Points sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Five Points's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Columbia County is mostly Southern Coastal Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Five Points
Every plant below cleared Five Points's own zone 9a and its 308-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Five Points?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Five Points
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Five Points. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COLUMBIA CNTY PUBLIC WORKS DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- S F STRICKLAND JRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- LUBE SPECIALISTSBrownfields · 1800 ft
- CORBITT MANUFACTURING COMPANY, INCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- LAKE FOOD STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- ASSOCIATED ASPHALT LAKE CITYBrownfields · 2300 ft
- ASSOCIATED ASPHALT LAKE CITY, LLCToxics Release Inventory · 2400 ft
- ANDERSON COLUMBIA INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- ANDERSON COLUMBIA CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- COLUMBIA CNTY-DETENTION CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WASTE PROUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- NORTH FLORIDA WELDING SUPPLYBrownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Five Points'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 Five Points.
Total Sites
350
within ~10 miles of Five Points
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Five Points
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Five Points
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Five Points, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 8 sites within ~10 miles of Five Points. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Five Points
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 Five Points average
Your land is one point inside Five Points
Everything above resolves to Five Points as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Columbia 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 Five Points Average
Five Points Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Five Points
- ●One soil character for all of Five Points
- ●Frost dates read at Five Points's scale: Feb 4 to Dec 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Five Points's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Five Points
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Five Points, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Five Points averages can't show:
We read public map data around Five Points — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Five Points average
How we know this about Five Points
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 Columbia 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 Five Points
When does frost risk typically end in Five Points?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Five Points typically lands around Feb 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Five Points?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Five Points typically arrives around Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 25, so the watching starts about Nov 9 — about 308 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Five Points?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Five Points sees about 308 frost-free days — roughly Feb 4 through Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 25 to Nov 25, about 273 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Five Points?
The federal record around Five Points is a meaningful one — 350 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (210), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Five Points?
From about Nov 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Five Points's scale — its 9a band and its 308-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Five Points'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 Five Points’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Five Points's own scale — the 1,389 acres it covers and 350 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Five Points's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 350 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Five Points, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Five Points's boundary and the 1,389 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~308-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Five Points sits in the Southeastern Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Five Points has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Columbia County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Five Points's 1,389 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Columbia County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Columbia 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 Columbia County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Five Points's 1,389 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Five Points you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,389 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Five Points-wide figureread your own land →
More in Florida
Wider growing context
What grows across FloridaFive Points sits outside our named growing regions, so Florida as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides