Oriole Beach, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: tomato, sweet potato, jalapeno, and loquat. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Oriole Beach, 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 Oriole Beach 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 Oriole Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Oriole Beach — the short answer
Oriole Beach, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 299 days between hard freezes, across 539 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 10
- Santa Rosa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- Santa Rosa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~299
- Santa Rosa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 539 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 Santa Rosa County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Oriole Beach's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Oriole Beach's 299-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Oriole Beach
Each reading below is measured for Oriole Beach itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsOriole Beach runs about 299 days between hard freezes (read from Santa Rosa County, the closest normal to Oriole Beach) — 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
MeasuredOriole Beach 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 Oriole Beach is in
Oriole Beach sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Oriole Beach's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Santa Rosa County is mostly Southeastern Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Oriole Beach
Plants matched to Oriole Beach's USDA zones 9b, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Oriole Beach?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — 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.
Documented around Oriole Beach
Spotted lanternfly documented 20 miles from Oriole Beach, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Oriole Beach
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Oriole Beach. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KEN GRIFFIN LANDSCAPE CONTRACTORSBrownfields · 2100 ft
- TAYLOR J LUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- WORKMANS AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- DIYAA LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- MASTER TUNE & LUBE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CASH ONLY CARS LLCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- GULF BREEZE FORDBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- BROXSON STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- GULF POWER COMPANY - LIVE OAK SUBSTATIONBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- GULF TECHNICAL SERVICESBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- SUNSHINE JR #430Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- TEXACO FOOD STORE #4293Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Oriole Beach'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 Oriole Beach.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Oriole Beach
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Oriole Beach
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Oriole Beach, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 13 sites within ~10 miles of Oriole Beach. 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.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Oriole Beach
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 Oriole Beach average
Your land is one point inside Oriole Beach
Everything above resolves to Oriole Beach as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 539 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Santa Rosa 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 Oriole Beach Average
Oriole Beach Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Oriole Beach
- ●One soil character for all of Oriole Beach
- ●Frost dates read at Oriole Beach's scale: Feb 10 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Oriole Beach's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Oriole Beach
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Oriole Beach, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Oriole Beach averages can't show:
We read public map data around Oriole Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Oriole Beach average
How we know this about Oriole Beach
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 Santa Rosa 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 Oriole Beach
When does frost risk typically end in Oriole Beach?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Oriole Beach typically lands around Feb 10, 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 Mar 3.
When is the first frost in Oriole Beach?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Oriole Beach typically arrives around Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 22, so the watching starts about Nov 6 — about 299 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Oriole Beach?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Oriole Beach sees about 299 frost-free days — roughly Feb 10 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 3 to Nov 22, about 264 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Oriole Beach?
The federal record around Oriole Beach runs heavier than most — 668 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (394), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Oriole Beach?
From about Nov 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Oriole Beach's scale — its 9b band and its 299-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Oriole Beach'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 Oriole Beach’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Oriole Beach's own scale — the 539 acres it covers and 668 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Oriole Beach's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 668 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Oriole Beach, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Oriole Beach's boundary and the 539 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Oriole Beach sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Oriole Beachlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Oriole Beach has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Santa Rosa County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Oriole Beach's 539 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Santa Rosa County
- The candidate plant list — Florida's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom Florida
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Santa Rosa 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 Santa Rosa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Oriole Beach's 539 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Oriole Beach you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 539 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Oriole Beach-wide figureread your own land →