Fleming Island, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with tomato, sweet potato, jalapeno, and loquat — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Fleming Island, 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 Fleming Island 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 Fleming Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fleming Island — the short answer
Fleming Island, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 300 days between hard freezes, across 10K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 9
- Clay County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- Clay County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~300
- Clay County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 10K 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 Clay County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Fleming Island's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fleming Island's 300-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fleming Island
Each reading below is measured for Fleming Island itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsFleming Island runs about 300 days between hard freezes (read from Clay County, the closest normal to Fleming Island) — 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
MeasuredFleming Island sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b.
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 Fleming Island is in
Fleming Island sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fleming Island's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clay County.
What Grows in Fleming Island
Plants matched to Fleming Island's USDA zones 9b, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Fleming Island?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — 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 Fleming Island
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fleming Island. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HOME DEPOT STORE #6369Brownfields · 650 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #5189Brownfields · 950 ft
- O'REILLY AUTO PARTS #6558Brownfields · 1200 ft
- PACE/FLEMING GRIDPFAS · 1500 ft
- TYSON FOODS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- GOODYEAR AUTO SERVICE CENTER #2444Brownfields · 1500 ft
- S&S FOOD MART #346Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- MURPHY USA #6686Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- RPM AUTOMOTIVE #6625Brownfields · 1900 ft
- PETCO #1559Brownfields · 1900 ft
- GATE #1198Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- TIRES PLUSBrownfields · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fleming Island'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 Fleming Island.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fleming Island
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fleming Island
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 Fleming Island
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 Fleming Island average
Your land is one point inside Fleming Island
Everything above resolves to Fleming Island as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 10K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Clay 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 Fleming Island Average
Fleming Island Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Fleming Island
- ●One soil character for all of Fleming Island
- ●Frost dates read at Fleming Island's scale: Feb 9 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fleming Island's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fleming Island
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fleming Island, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fleming Island averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fleming Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fleming Island average
How we know this about Fleming Island
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 Clay 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 Fleming Island
When does frost risk typically end in Fleming Island?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fleming Island typically lands around Feb 9, 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 Mar 2.
When is the first frost in Fleming Island?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fleming Island typically arrives around Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 22, so the watching starts about Nov 6 — about 300 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fleming Island?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fleming Island sees about 300 frost-free days — roughly Feb 9 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 2 to Nov 22, about 265 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fleming Island?
The federal record around Fleming Island is a meaningful one — 660 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (323), the nearest Brownfields 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 Fleming Island?
From about Nov 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fleming Island's scale — its 9b band and its 300-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fleming Island'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 Fleming Island’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Fleming Island's own scale — the 10,136 acres it covers and 660 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fleming Island's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 660 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fleming Island, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fleming Island's boundary and the 10,136 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Fleming Island's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Fleming Island has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Clay County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fleming Island's 10,136 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clay County
- The candidate plant list — Florida's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom Florida
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clay 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 Clay County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fleming Island's 10,136 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fleming Island you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 10,136 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Fleming Island-wide figureread your own land →