Longwood, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Longwood, 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 Longwood 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 Longwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Longwood — the short answer
Longwood, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 333 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 19
- Seminole County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 18
- Seminole County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~333
- Seminole County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Seminole County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Longwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Longwood's 333-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Longwood
Each reading below is measured for Longwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLongwood runs about 333 days between hard freezes (read from Seminole County, the closest normal to Longwood) — 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
MeasuredLongwood 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 Longwood is in
Longwood sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Longwood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Seminole County.
What Grows in Longwood
Every plant below cleared Longwood's own zone 9b and its 333-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Longwood?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 18 — 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 Longwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Longwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LONGWOOD CITY-POLICE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- LONGWOOD CITY PUBLIC WORKS DEPT-PLT #1Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CHEVRON-LONGWOODUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- LONGWOOD PUBLIC WORKS, CITY OFBrownfields · 1300 ft
- SOUTH SEMINOLE MEDICAL PLAZA CONDOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- THE DERMATOLOGY GROUP PABrownfields · 1500 ft
- MOBIL #02-JKBUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- SOUTH SEMINOLE HOSPITALBrownfields · 1600 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #3251Brownfields · 1600 ft
- WAWA #5156Brownfields · 1700 ft
- WAWA FOOD MARKET# 5156Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- SUNSHINE FOOD MART # 336Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Longwood'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 Longwood.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Longwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Longwood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Longwood, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 29 sites within ~10 miles of Longwood. 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 Longwood
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 Longwood average
Your land is one point inside Longwood
Everything above resolves to Longwood as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Seminole County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 Longwood Average
Longwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Longwood
- ●One soil character for all of Longwood
- ●Frost dates read at Longwood's scale: Jan 19 to Dec 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Longwood's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Longwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Longwood, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Longwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Longwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Longwood average
How we know this about Longwood
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Seminole 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Longwood
When does frost risk typically end in Longwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Longwood typically lands around Jan 19, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Longwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Longwood typically arrives around Dec 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 4, so the watching starts about Nov 18 — about 333 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Longwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Longwood sees about 333 frost-free days — roughly Jan 19 through Dec 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 9 to Dec 4, about 298 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Longwood?
The federal record around Longwood runs heavier than most — 2,070 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,132), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Longwood?
From about Nov 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Longwood's scale — its 9b band and its 333-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Longwood'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 Longwood’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Longwood's own scale — the 3,535 acres it covers and 2,070 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Longwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 2,070 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Longwood, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Longwood's boundary and the 3,535 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~333-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Longwood's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Longwood has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Seminole County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Longwood's 3,535 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Seminole County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Seminole 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 Seminole County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Longwood's 3,535 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Longwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,535 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Longwood-wide figureread your own land →
More in Florida
Wider growing context
What grows across FloridaLongwood sits outside our named growing regions, so Florida as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides