Mulberry, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Mulberry, 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 Mulberry 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 Mulberry — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Mulberry — the short answer
Mulberry, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 332 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 22
- Polk County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 20
- Polk County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~332
- Polk 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 Polk County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Mulberry's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mulberry's 332-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mulberry
Each reading below is measured for Mulberry itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMulberry runs about 332 days between hard freezes (read from Polk County, the closest normal to Mulberry) — 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
MeasuredMulberry 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 Mulberry is in
Mulberry sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mulberry's own centroid rather than borrowed from Polk County.
What Grows in Mulberry
Every plant below cleared Mulberry's own zone 9b and its 332-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mulberry?
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 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Mulberry
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mulberry. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RICHARD MCKENZIE & SONS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- WARDLAW & DICKINSON INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- WALKER GROVES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- CLARK ENVIRONMENTAL INCBrownfields · 1800 ft
- ALFRED CONHAGEN INC OF FLORIDAToxics Release Inventory · 1900 ft
- ALFRED CONHAGEN INC OF FLORIDABrownfields · 1900 ft
- TURNER COATINGS INC.Brownfields · 2000 ft
- RAMP LEASE LLCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- MORGAN TRUCKING COMPANY INCBrownfields · 2200 ft
- LAND O'LAKES PURINA FEED LLC - MULBERRYToxics Release Inventory · 2300 ft
- CEMEX MULBERRYToxics Release Inventory · 2500 ft
- DEMCO SPECIALTIES INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mulberry'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 Mulberry.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mulberry
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mulberry
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mulberry, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mulberry — Superfund (16 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (69 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Mulberry
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 Mulberry average
Your land is one point inside Mulberry
Everything above resolves to Mulberry as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Polk 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 Mulberry Average
Mulberry Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Mulberry
- ●One soil character for all of Mulberry
- ●Frost dates read at Mulberry's scale: Jan 22 to Dec 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mulberry's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mulberry
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mulberry, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mulberry averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mulberry — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mulberry average
How we know this about Mulberry
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 Polk 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 Mulberry
When does frost risk typically end in Mulberry?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mulberry typically lands around Jan 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Mulberry?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mulberry typically arrives around Dec 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 6, so the watching starts about Nov 20 — about 332 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mulberry?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mulberry sees about 332 frost-free days — roughly Jan 22 through Dec 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 12 to Dec 6, about 297 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mulberry?
The federal record around Mulberry is a meaningful one — 1,051 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (499), 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 Mulberry?
From about Nov 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mulberry's scale — its 9b band and its 332-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mulberry'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 Mulberry’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Mulberry's own scale — the 4,344 acres it covers and 1,051 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mulberry's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,051 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mulberry, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mulberry's boundary and the 4,344 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~332-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mulberry's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Mulberry has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Polk County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mulberry's 4,344 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Polk County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Polk 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 Polk County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mulberry's 4,344 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mulberry you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,344 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 Mulberry-wide figureread your own land →