St. Cloud, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include mango, tomato, orange, and sweet potato, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in St. Cloud, 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 St. Cloud 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 St. Cloud — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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St. Cloud — the short answer
St. Cloud, Florida: USDA zone 10a, about 323 days between hard freezes, across 19K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 25
- Osceola County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 14
- Osceola County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~323
- Osceola County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 19K 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 Osceola County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is St. Cloud's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against St. Cloud's 323-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in St. Cloud
Each reading below is measured for St. Cloud itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSt. Cloud runs about 323 days between hard freezes (read from Osceola County, the closest normal to St. Cloud) — 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
MeasuredSt. Cloud sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a.
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 St. Cloud is in
St. Cloud sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at St. Cloud's own centroid rather than borrowed from Osceola County.
What Grows in St. Cloud
Plants matched to St. Cloud's USDA zones 10a, 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 St. Cloud?
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 25 (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. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near St. Cloud
Closest first, within ~10 miles of St. Cloud. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OSCEOLA CNTY SCHOOL BD-TRANSPORTATION-ST CLOUDUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- EXTREME MOTOR WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- ST CLOUD AIRPARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- SAINT CLOUD HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 2400 ft
- SAINT CLOUD MIDDLE SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- JOES AUTO SERVICE CENTER INCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- CHEVRON-SAINT CLOUDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- KISSELBACK FORDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- POFFENBAUGH FORD INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- KISSELBACK FORDBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- MILTS CAR CARE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- WAWA FOOD MARKET #5104Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from St. Cloud'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 St. Cloud.
Total Sites
423
within ~10 miles of St. Cloud
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of St. Cloud
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of St. Cloud
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 St. Cloud
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 St. Cloud average
Your land is one point inside St. Cloud
Everything above resolves to St. Cloud as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 19K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Osceola 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 St. Cloud Average
St. Cloud Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across St. Cloud
- ●One soil character for all of St. Cloud
- ●Frost dates read at St. Cloud's scale: Jan 25 to Dec 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not St. Cloud's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in St. Cloud
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in St. Cloud, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that St. Cloud averages can't show:
We read public map data around St. Cloud — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the St. Cloud average
How we know this about St. Cloud
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 Osceola 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 St. Cloud
When does frost risk typically end in St. Cloud?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in St. Cloud typically lands around Jan 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in St. Cloud?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in St. Cloud 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 323 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in St. Cloud?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, St. Cloud sees about 323 frost-free days — roughly Jan 25 through Dec 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 15 to Nov 30, about 288 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in St. Cloud?
The federal record around St. Cloud is a meaningful one — 423 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (230), 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 St. Cloud?
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 St. Cloud's scale — its 10a band and its 323-day season. Your yard writes its own version of St. Cloud'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 St. Cloud’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at St. Cloud's own scale — the 18,669 acres it covers and 423 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- St. Cloud's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 423 documented contamination sites on the federal record near St. Cloud, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- St. Cloud's boundary and the 18,669 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at St. Cloud's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — St. Cloud has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Osceola County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so St. Cloud's 18,669 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Osceola 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 Osceola 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 Osceola County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among St. Cloud's 18,669 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of St. Cloud you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 18,669 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 St. Cloud-wide figureread your own land →
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