Panama City, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Panama 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 Panama 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 Panama City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Panama City — the short answer
Panama City, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 312 days between hard freezes, across 23K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 5
- Bay County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 14
- Bay County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~312
- Bay County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 23K 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 Bay County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Panama City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Panama City's 312-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Panama City
Each reading below is measured for Panama City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPanama City runs about 312 days between hard freezes (read from Bay County, the closest normal to Panama 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
MeasuredPanama 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 Panama City is in
Panama City sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Panama City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bay County.
What Grows in Panama City
Every plant below cleared Panama City's own zone 9b and its 312-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Panama City?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 14 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Panama City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Panama City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CITGO FOOD STORE #4008Underground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- FL DEPT OF TRANSPORTATION-PANAMA CITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- EAGLE ONE PERFORMANCE INCBrownfields · 1700 ft
- FLAV-O-RICH INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- HUB WAREHOUSE PROPERTIES LTDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- PANAMA BEVERAGE CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- VAN KLEECK COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- PANAMA CITY NEWS-HERALDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- DIVISION OF FORESTRY-P C WORK CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- CHEVRON #47825Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- EXPRESS LANE #707 - FL0019Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- BEST WESTERN BAYSIDE INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Panama 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 Panama City.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Panama City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Panama City
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Panama 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 Panama City average
Your land is one point inside Panama City
Everything above resolves to Panama City as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 23K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Bay 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 Panama City Average
Panama City Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Panama City
- ●One soil character for all of Panama City
- ●Frost dates read at Panama City's scale: Feb 5 to Dec 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Panama City's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Panama City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Panama City, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Panama City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Panama City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Panama City average
How we know this about Panama 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 Bay 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 Panama City
When does frost risk typically end in Panama City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Panama City typically lands around Feb 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Panama City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Panama City typically arrives around Dec 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 30, so the watching starts about Nov 14 — about 312 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Panama City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Panama City sees about 312 frost-free days — roughly Feb 5 through Dec 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 26 to Nov 30, about 277 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Panama City?
The federal record around Panama City is a meaningful one — 847 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (455), 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 Panama City?
From about Nov 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Panama City's scale — its 9b band and its 312-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Panama 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 Panama City’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Panama City's own scale — the 22,701 acres it covers and 847 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Panama City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 847 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Panama City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Panama City's boundary and the 22,701 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~312-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Panama City's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Panama City has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Bay County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Panama City's 22,701 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bay County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bay 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 Bay County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Panama City's 22,701 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Panama 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 22,701 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 Panama City-wide figureread your own land →