Gulf Stream, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 11a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include artichoke, starfruit, allspice, and cabbage; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Gulf Stream, 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 Gulf Stream 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 Gulf Stream — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gulf Stream — the short answer
Gulf Stream, Florida: USDA zone 11a, no 28°F killing freeze on record — the season is year-round, across 503 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 11a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Killing freeze
- None on record
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, this town’s own record
- Town area
- 503 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. The year-round finding is measured — a 30-year record with no 28°F killing freeze in it — never inferred from missing dates.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 11a is Gulf Stream's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gulf Stream's no killing freeze on record, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gulf Stream
Each reading below is measured for Gulf Stream itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Winter hardiness
MeasuredGulf Stream sits in USDA hardiness zone 11a.
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 Gulf Stream is in
Gulf Stream sits in the Southern Florida Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Tropical Wet Forests. That is read at Gulf Stream's own centroid rather than borrowed from Palm Beach County.
What Grows in Gulf Stream
Every plant below cleared Gulf Stream's own zone 11a. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
What's on the federal record near Gulf Stream
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gulf Stream. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BORTON VOLVO VOLKSWAGENUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- GULF STREAM GOLF CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- MAROONE VOLVOBrownfields · 2300 ft
- MAROONE VOLKSWAGONBrownfields · 2400 ft
- GULFSTREAM LODGE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- UNION 76 STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #5911Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- WALLACE DODGE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CATER VACANT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- MR TUXUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- HIGH SCHOOL ERFORMANCE AUTO TECHBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- TRI STATE AUTO TERMINALUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gulf Stream'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 Gulf Stream.
Total Sites
1,531
within ~10 miles of Gulf Stream
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gulf Stream
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gulf Stream
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.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Gulf Stream
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 Gulf Stream average
Your land is one point inside Gulf Stream
Everything above resolves to Gulf Stream as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 503 acres. 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 Gulf Stream Average
Gulf Stream Average
- ●USDA Zones 11a, averaged across Gulf Stream
- ●One soil character for all of Gulf Stream
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gulf Stream's 11a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gulf Stream
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gulf Stream, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gulf Stream averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gulf Stream — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gulf Stream average
How we know this about Gulf Stream
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, with the labelled statewide window where none resolves; 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 Gulf Stream
Is it too late to plant in Gulf Stream?
No — Gulf Stream has no 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record, so the growing season is year-round and there is no last-frost date to wait for. Planting is paced by rainfall, heat and daylength instead of by frost: start heat-lovers any month, and time cool-season crops (lettuce, brassicas, peas) for the cooler, wetter half of the year or for higher ground. Succession sowing every few weeks works all year, so the limit is what you can keep watered and harvested, not the calendar.
When does frost risk typically end in Gulf Stream?
It doesn't — Gulf Stream records no 28°F killing freeze at all across the 1991–2020 station record, so there is no spring frost date to plant after. Cold still matters with elevation: the higher you garden, the cooler the nights, and a few tropical crops sulk below about 60°F even where they never freeze.
How long is the growing season in Gulf Stream?
Year-round — the 1991–2020 station record for Gulf Stream contains no 28°F killing freeze, so there is no season to measure between freezes. What paces planting instead is heat, rainfall and daylength: the hottest, wettest stretch is the hard part for cool-season crops, not winter. Elevation is the one real exception — the higher you garden, the colder the nights get.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gulf Stream?
The federal record around Gulf Stream is a meaningful one — 1,531 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (788), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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.
Everything above is measured at Gulf Stream's scale — its 11a band and its no killing freeze on record. Your yard writes its own version of Gulf Stream'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 Gulf Stream’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Gulf Stream's own scale — the 503 acres it covers and 1,531 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gulf Stream's own USDA hardiness band, zones 11aUSDA PHZM 2023
- No 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record covering Gulf Stream — a year-round growing seasonNOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- 1,531 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gulf Stream, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gulf Stream's boundary and the 503 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear Gulf Stream's hardiness zoneGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gulf Stream's own centroid, the Southern Florida Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gulf Stream's 503 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Palm Beach County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Palm Beach 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 Palm Beach County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gulf Stream's 503 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gulf Stream you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 503 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Gulf Stream-wide figureread your own land →