The Northeast Florida spans USDA hardiness zones 9a-9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The Atlantic-facing northeast peninsula — Jacksonville, Gainesville, and St. Augustine along the St. Johns River — where ocean-moderated Zone 9a–9b winters and deep sandy coastal-plain flatwoods set a warmer floor and a tighter, earlier frost window than the Gulf-side Panhandle to the west (no genuine 8b interior here; last frost lands ~late January to mid-February). Reliable performers under these conditions include tomato, sweet potato, jalapeno, and loquat; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
The Northeast Florida spans Florida.
Your yard isn't all of the Northeast Florida.
The Northeast Florida spans USDA zones 9a-9b, but your parcel sits in exactly one — and slope, tree cover, and low spots nudge it further. 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 Northeast Florida — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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The Northeast Florida — the short answer
The Northeast Florida: USDA zones 9a-9b, 300–329 frost-free days, in Florida.
- USDA zones
- 9a-9b
- USDA PHZM 2023, aggregated over the footprint
- Frost-free season
- 300–329 days
- NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- Counties
- 6
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Region type
- County cluster
- Growable Ground growing-region registry
Region boundary: Growable Ground growing-region registry — curated county clusters, EPA Level III ecoregions, and town clusters drawn finer than any county. Where a region publishes no measured season, no season figure is shown.
Hardiness Zone Range
What Grows in the Northeast Florida
Plants matched to the Northeast Florida's USDA zones 9a-9b, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has across the region — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Native Plants of the Northeast Florida
Plants the USDA PLANTS Database documents as native and present in this region’s state, kept only where the published hardiness range meets the Northeast Florida’s USDA zones 9a-9b — closest range match first. Presence is recorded by state, so a plant can be documented across the state and still be scarce in your corner of the region.
The ground across the Northeast Florida
The USDA soil survey maps this ground county by county. These are those records weighted by land area across six member counties — this region’s own profile, not a state figure.
The ground is predominantly Spodosols, at 31% of mapped acres, followed by Entisols (26%), Ultisols (21%) and Alfisols (12%). Eight soil orders appear somewhere inside the footprint, which is the honest reason a regional soil answer only goes so far. The most extensive named soils are Candler, Astatula, and Leon.
34% of those acres are poorly drained, and another 17% very poorly drained, 17% excessively drained. Topsoil pH runs 4.6–6.2 between the lowest and the highest county on record. 0% of the footprint is classed prime farmland.
Soil order
Spodosols
Drainage
Poorly drained
Topsoil pH
4.6–6.2
Hydric soils
29%
Soil changes across a driveway, so which of these your own ground sits on is a parcel question rather than a regional one. Nassau County holds the most wetland ground here, at 52% — soil types explained.
USDA NRCS SSURGO via Soil Data Access
What this means for growing in the Northeast Florida
The soil survey reads this ground county by county, and the readings above are those records summed across the Northeast Florida. Here is what they mean for a garden here — and the move an experienced grower makes about each one.
Drainage
From county records34% of the mapped acres across the Northeast Florida are poorly drained — ground that sheds water slowly. That is area-weighted across all six of its mapped counties.
Beds can stay saturated for days after heavy rain, and the roots of most vegetables, berries, and fruit trees suffocate or rot in soil that never drains.
Raised beds or mounded rows lift roots above the wet zone; choose water-tolerant crops for the lowest spots.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
From county recordsTopsoil across the Northeast Florida runs pH 4.6–6.2 — acidic in all six of them.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across the Northeast Florida — and how to grow with it.
Across the Northeast Florida's 6 counties the federal record holds 8,072 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks (4,537), Brownfields (2,798) and Toxics Release Inventory (315). The heaviest single county is Duval County, with 4,068.
That is a regional count, not a reading of any one lot — proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis. Open the map outlined to the Northeast Florida to see which records sit where you actually grow.
Sources Checked
Summed across the 6 counties in the Northeast Florida
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around the Northeast Florida, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 101 sites across the 6 counties in the Northeast Florida. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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).
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
Your land is one point inside the Northeast Florida
Everything above resolves to the Northeast Florida as a whole — a footprint spanning USDA zones 9a-9b. Your parcel sits in exactly one of them. 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 region 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 regional average.
Your Lot vs the Northeast Florida Average
Northeast Florida Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a-9b, averaged across Northeast Florida
- ●One soil character for all of Northeast Florida
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Northeast Florida's 9a-9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in the Northeast Florida
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in the Northeast Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, contamination, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Northeast Florida averages can't show:
We read public map data around The Northeast Florida — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Northeast Florida average
How we know this about the Northeast Florida
The boundary: a cluster of neighboring counties. Growing regions have no official boundary, so this footprint is our published one, and every figure on this page was measured over the counties inside it rather than borrowed from the state around it.
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, aggregated across the footprint; the growing season from NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS 1991–2020 28°F normals, read at each member’s own record; boundaries from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination record from the federal sources named in that beat above; the soil from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, read at each member county’s own record and weighted to this footprint by land area. Where a member carries no record of its own, it is absent from the figure rather than filled in.
Common questions about the Northeast Florida
What hardiness zone is the Northeast Florida?
The Northeast Florida spans USDA hardiness zones 9a-9b, aggregated from the USDA Agricultural Research Service Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023 across the region's counties. Zones reflect average annual extreme minimum temperatures from 1991–2020 data.
How long is the growing season in the Northeast Florida?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, the Northeast Florida's counties mostly run 308 to 322 frost-free days, median 313 (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991–2020, over 6 member counties). That 14-day spread is the honest read — no single season describes 6 counties, and each county guide below carries its own.
When does frost risk end in the Northeast Florida?
Across the Northeast Florida, the middle half of member counties see their last 28°F hard freeze between Jan 31 and Feb 6 (median Feb 3), and their first fall freeze between Dec 11 and Dec 19. Those are hard freezes, not the last light frost: tender transplants wait for about Feb 24, and elevation decides which end of a 6-day spread you garden in.
What grows well in the Northeast Florida?
The Northeast Florida's conditions suit plants such as Tomato, Sweet Potato, Jalapeno, Loquat, Mango, Orange. What actually thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage — we score each plant against the real conditions at your address.
How is the Northeast Florida defined?
The Northeast Florida is defined here as a curated cluster of 6 neighboring counties that share a growing character. Growing regions have no official boundary, so this footprint is our published one — every county in it is named on this page.
Which states does the Northeast Florida cover?
The Northeast Florida spans Florida. Each state's full growing guide is linked on this page.
What other growing regions cover the same states?
Gulf Coast, Florida Panhandle, Southwest Florida (Naples–Fort Myers–Sarasota), Central Florida Ridge, Everglades Agricultural Area, and Tampa Bay share at least one state with the Northeast Florida. Growing regions overlap and interlock — a single address can sit inside more than one, which is why the precise read is always the parcel, not the region.
What this page reads at the Northeast Florida’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at the Northeast Florida's own scale — the zone 9a-9b band across its footprint, a median 313-day season across its 6 counties and 8,072 documented federal contamination records across its 6 counties, 4,068 of them in Duval County alone; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- The USDA hardiness band 9a-9b aggregated across all 6 counties in the footprintUSDA PHZM 2023
- The boundary itself — the 6 counties this region is curated fromGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The growing character that makes this region distinct from the states it crossesGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The 28°F season across the footprint — the middle half of its 6 counties run 308 to 322 frost-free days, median 313NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- The federal contamination record over the whole footprint — 8,072 documented federal contamination records across its 6 counties, 4,068 of them in Duval County aloneEPA, USGS and USDA federal site records
- The soil order mix across the footprint — 31% Spodosols, topsoil pH 4.6–6.2, area-weighted across its 6 mapped countiesUSDA NRCS SSURGO
Inherited from a wider read
- The candidate plant list — its state's curated sets, merged and filtered to zones 9a-9bfrom Florida
What this page can’t tell you
- Which end of the 14-day range your ground sits at — 308 days at one extreme, 322 at the other, decided mostly by elevationfrost dates explained →
- Which of those soils your own ground sits on — the survey maps them county-wide, and they change across a drivewaysoil types explained →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on one specific lotwhy one lot differs from the next →
Explore the Northeast Florida
State growing guides
Counties in this region
Other growing regions across Florida
The humid, near-frost-free coastal rim of the Gulf of Mexico — long seasons, sandy and alluvial soils, heat, and hurricanes shaping what thrives. (Representative coastal counties, not exhaustive.)
North Florida's mild-winter coastal plain of sandy and clay soils — a transition zone growing both Southern staples and subtropical fruit.
Florida's lower Gulf coast — a near-frost-free subtropical corridor (USDA zone 10a–10b along the shore, dropping to 9b in the DeSoto interior) where mangrove shorelines, sandy and marl soils, and hurricane exposure shape what grows. Year-round warm-season vegetables and mainland tropical fruit thrive here on a Gulf-side footprint distinct from both the cooler Central Florida interior and the Atlantic shore at the same latitude.
The Lake Wales Ridge, a well-drained white-sand spine running about 100 miles down the Florida peninsula from Lake County south through Orange, Osceola, Polk, and Highlands, anchors this historic citrus belt in USDA zones 9b–10a with 323-to-335-day frost-free seasons.
The Everglades Agricultural Area is roughly 700,000 acres of drained peat-and-muck farmland south of Lake Okeechobee, defined under Florida's Everglades Forever Act (§373.4592, F.S.); its member counties span USDA zones 10a to 10b with a frost-free to 326-plus-day growing season, the deep organic soils behind the region's sugarcane and winter-vegetable harvests.
Florida's central Gulf-coast metro, where Tampa Bay's water holds the immediate shoreline in near-frost-free zone 10a while the ridge just inland at Pasco drops to 9b — a maritime coastal-versus-interior split at one latitude that changes when tender crops can safely go in the ground.