Ona, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ona, 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 Ona 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 Ona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ona — the short answer
Ona, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 331 days between hard freezes, across 17K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 19
- Hardee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 16
- Hardee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~331
- Hardee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 17K 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 Hardee County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Ona's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ona's 331-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ona
Each reading below is measured for Ona itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsOna runs about 331 days between hard freezes (read from Hardee County, the closest normal to Ona) — 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
MeasuredOna 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 Ona is in
Ona sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ona's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hardee County.
What Grows in Ona
Every plant below cleared Ona's own zone 9b and its 331-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ona?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 16 — 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 Ona
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ona. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VICTOR FLORESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- NABHIA INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- WAUCHULA GROCERY LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- FL FENCE POST CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FLORIDA FENCE POST ERIC_5574Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- FLORIDA FENCE POST COToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- FLORIDA FENCE POST COBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- WILSONS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- E RAY FARWELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- TRIANGLE AUTO SALVAGEBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- DOYLE CARLTON WELL 22 NEAR WAUCHULA FLNitrate · 2.5 mi
- WAUCHULA MUNICIPAL CITY - AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ona'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 Ona.
Total Sites
203
within ~10 miles of Ona
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ona
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ona
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Ona
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 Ona average
Your land is one point inside Ona
Everything above resolves to Ona as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 17K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Hardee 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 Ona Average
Ona Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Ona
- ●One soil character for all of Ona
- ●Frost dates read at Ona's scale: Jan 19 to Dec 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ona's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ona
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ona, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ona averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ona average
How we know this about Ona
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 Hardee 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 Ona
When does frost risk typically end in Ona?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ona 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 Ona?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ona typically arrives around Dec 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 2, so the watching starts about Nov 16 — about 331 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ona?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ona sees about 331 frost-free days — roughly Jan 19 through Dec 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 9 to Dec 2, about 296 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ona?
The federal record around Ona is a meaningful one — 203 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (118), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Ona?
From about Nov 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ona's scale — its 9b band and its 331-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ona'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 Ona’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Ona's own scale — the 17,100 acres it covers and 203 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ona's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 203 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ona, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ona's boundary and the 17,100 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~331-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ona's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Ona has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Hardee County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ona's 17,100 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hardee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hardee 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 Hardee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ona's 17,100 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ona you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 17,100 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Ona-wide figureread your own land →
More in Florida
Wider growing context
What grows across FloridaOna sits outside our named growing regions, so Florida as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides