Winter Springs, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — 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 Winter Springs, 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 Winter Springs 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 Winter Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Winter Springs — the short answer
Winter Springs, Florida: USDA zone 10a, about 333 days between hard freezes, across 10K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 19
- Seminole County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 18
- Seminole County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~333
- Seminole County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 10K 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 Seminole County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is Winter Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Winter Springs's 333-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Winter Springs
Each reading below is measured for Winter Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsWinter Springs runs about 333 days between hard freezes (read from Seminole County, the closest normal to Winter Springs) — 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
MeasuredWinter Springs 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 Winter Springs is in
Winter Springs sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Winter Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Seminole County.
What Grows in Winter Springs
Every plant below cleared Winter Springs's own zone 10a and its 333-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Winter Springs?
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 19 (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 Winter Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Winter Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WINTER SPRINGS, CITY OF (3 WPS)PFAS · 25 ft
- WINTER SPRINGS CITY-WATER & SEWERUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- HIGGENBOTHAM BUICK INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- INDIAN TRAILS MIDDLE SCHOOLBrownfields · 2300 ft
- MOBIL-WINTER SPRINGS #731Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- HANDY WAY FOOD STORE #3333Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- PUBLIX SUPER MARKET #62Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- WINTER SPRINGS CITY-CITY HALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 7-ELEVEN FOOD STORE #19322Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- WINTER SPRINGS HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- TUSCAWILLA COUNTRY CLUBBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- TUSCAWILLA COUNTRY CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Winter Springs'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 Winter Springs.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Winter Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Winter Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Winter Springs, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Winter Springs — PFAS (17 sites) and Superfund (23 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Winter Springs
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 Winter Springs average
Your land is one point inside Winter Springs
Everything above resolves to Winter Springs as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 10K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Seminole 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 Winter Springs Average
Winter Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Winter Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Winter Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Winter Springs's scale: Jan 19 to Dec 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Winter Springs's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Winter Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Winter Springs, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Winter Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Winter Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Winter Springs average
How we know this about Winter Springs
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 Seminole 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 Winter Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Winter Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Winter Springs 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 Winter Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Winter Springs 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 333 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Winter Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Winter Springs sees about 333 frost-free days — roughly Jan 19 through Dec 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 9 to Dec 4, about 298 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Winter Springs?
The federal record around Winter Springs runs heavier than most — 1,672 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (902), the nearest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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 Winter Springs?
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 Winter Springs's scale — its 10a band and its 333-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Winter Springs'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 Winter Springs’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Winter Springs's own scale — the 9,510 acres it covers and 1,672 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Winter Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,672 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Winter Springs, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Winter Springs's boundary and the 9,510 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 10a and a ~333-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Winter Springs's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Winter Springs has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Seminole County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Winter Springs's 9,510 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Seminole County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Seminole 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 Seminole County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Winter Springs's 9,510 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Winter Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,510 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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 Winter Springs-wide figureread your own land →
More in Florida
Wider growing context
What grows across FloridaWinter Springs sits outside our named growing regions, so Florida as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides