Lake Magdalene, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Lake Magdalene, 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 Lake Magdalene 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 Lake Magdalene — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lake Magdalene — the short answer
Lake Magdalene, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 328 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~328
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 7K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Lake Magdalene's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Magdalene's 328-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Magdalene
Each reading below is measured for Lake Magdalene itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake Magdalene runs about 328 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredLake Magdalene 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 Lake Magdalene is in
Lake Magdalene sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lake Magdalene's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hillsborough County.
What Grows in Lake Magdalene
Every plant below cleared Lake Magdalene's own zone 9b and its 328-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Magdalene?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 15 — 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 Lake Magdalene
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Magdalene. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CARROLLWOOD DAY SCHOOL ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- SHELL-ZAMBITO #205Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- JETTON PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- HILLSBOROUGH CNTY-CHILDREN'S SERVICESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 7-ELEVEN STORE #37667Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 7-ELEVEN FOOD STORE #20827Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- FLETCHER SHELL #440Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- FMC CARROLLWOOD PSYCHIATRYBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- FMC CARDIOLOGY CARROLLWOODBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- VERIZON FLORIDA INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- FRONTIER FL LLC-CARROLLWOODUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY BUCHANAN JR HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Magdalene'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 Lake Magdalene.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Magdalene
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Magdalene
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 Lake Magdalene
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 Lake Magdalene average
Your land is one point inside Lake Magdalene
Everything above resolves to Lake Magdalene as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 Lake Magdalene Average
Lake Magdalene Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Lake Magdalene
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Magdalene
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Magdalene's scale: Jan 21 to Dec 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Magdalene's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Magdalene
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Magdalene, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Magdalene averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Magdalene — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Magdalene average
How we know this about Lake Magdalene
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 Lake Magdalene’s own record; 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 Lake Magdalene
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Magdalene?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Magdalene typically lands around Jan 21, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Lake Magdalene?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Magdalene typically arrives around Dec 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 1, so the watching starts about Nov 15 — about 328 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Magdalene?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Magdalene sees about 328 frost-free days — roughly Jan 21 through Dec 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 11 to Dec 1, about 293 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Magdalene?
The federal record around Lake Magdalene runs heavier than most — 3,335 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,717), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.7 miles 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 Lake Magdalene?
From about Nov 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lake Magdalene's scale — its 9b band and its 328-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Magdalene'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 Lake Magdalene’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lake Magdalene's own scale — its own ~328-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,557 acres it covers and 3,335 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Magdalene's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Magdalene's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jan 21 and Dec 15 and the ~328-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,335 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Magdalene, the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Magdalene's boundary and the 6,557 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~328-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lake Magdalene's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lake Magdalene's 6,557 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hillsborough County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hillsborough 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 Hillsborough County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Magdalene's 6,557 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Magdalene you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,557 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 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 Lake Magdalene-wide figureread your own land →
More in Florida
Growing region
Nearby growing guides