Orange City, 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 Orange City, 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 Orange City 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 Orange City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Orange City — the short answer
Orange City, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 323 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 29
- Volusia County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 18
- Volusia County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~323
- Volusia County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 5K 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 Volusia County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Orange City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Orange City's 323-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Orange City
Each reading below is measured for Orange City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsOrange City runs about 323 days between hard freezes (read from Volusia County, the closest normal to Orange City) — 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
MeasuredOrange City 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 Orange City is in
Orange City sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Orange City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Volusia County.
What Grows in Orange City
Every plant below cleared Orange City's own zone 9b and its 323-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Orange City?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 29 (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 Orange City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Orange City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JOHN KNOX VILLAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ORANGE CITY-DEPT OF PUBLIC WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CROSSROAD PAINT & BODYBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- BLUE SPRING AUTO WASHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CUMBERLAND FARMS #976Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- DIXIE SEPTIC TANK-EVANS CRANE SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CHEVRON-ORANGE CITY #368Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CITGO-BLUE SPRINGS #675Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- PHILLIPS 66-ORANGE CITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SUNOCO-VOLUSIA #429Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SUNRISE RADIATOR & AUTO CENTERBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- ORANGE CITY FIRE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Orange City'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 Orange City.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Orange City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Orange City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Orange City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Orange City — Superfund (11 sites) and PFAS (6 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Orange City
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 Orange City average
Your land is one point inside Orange City
Everything above resolves to Orange City as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Volusia 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 Orange City Average
Orange City Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Orange City
- ●One soil character for all of Orange City
- ●Frost dates read at Orange City's scale: Jan 29 to Dec 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Orange City's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Orange City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Orange City, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Orange City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Orange City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Orange City average
How we know this about Orange City
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 Volusia 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 Orange City
When does frost risk typically end in Orange City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Orange City typically lands around Jan 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Orange City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Orange City 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 323 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Orange City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Orange City sees about 323 frost-free days — roughly Jan 29 through Dec 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 19 to Dec 4, about 288 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Orange City?
The federal record around Orange City is a meaningful one — 653 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (350), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Orange City?
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 Orange City's scale — its 9b band and its 323-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Orange City'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 Orange City’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Orange City's own scale — the 5,003 acres it covers and 653 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Orange City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 653 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Orange City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Orange City's boundary and the 5,003 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~323-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Orange City's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Orange City has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Volusia County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Orange City's 5,003 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Volusia County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Volusia 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 Volusia County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Orange City's 5,003 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Orange City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,003 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Orange City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Florida
Wider growing context
What grows across FloridaOrange City sits outside our named growing regions, so Florida as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides