The hardiness is 3-9 so if south Fla is 9 or less I guess it will be okay, unless I'm wronge in what the zones mean.The 3-9 is for white oak. I would've thought they would need more cold to grow, but if you go by the zones listed for quercus alba they would be fine. The native area for Q V does not include much of Florida though, just extreme north Fla. Now if you tried a blue spruce you would not be able to grow it there, if I were in Fla as soon as I got there I'd plant me a Live oak. You are zone 6 , are you moving to Fla or just curious?

Sometimes you get lucky, but there seems to be a lack of hardiness outside recommended zones. I have planted green ash, boxelder and elm in Tampa (from seeds in WI) and they all grew for a while. The boxelder died pretty quick, the ash lasted a couple of years. The elm did pretty well, but my parents cut it down because it got shaded out by a magnolia.
That said, I have seen white oak in NORTH florida, and I believe that applies to true chestnut too (in fact I think Dunstan Chestnuts are from around Gainesville).

No poaky 1 Iam not moving to florida. I am just curious if it is possible to do something like this. I would also like to know why they die if thats the case.

It depends on where they originated from. Yes, white oak is native to north Florida, but if you take one from Ohio and plant it here, it will do poorly. Typically, they will grow very slowly, show stress from summer heat/humidity and get finished off by insects and diseases. Also, just because a plant can take the cold in zone 9, doesn't mean it can take the heat in zone 9. Also, zone 9 in the SE is VERY different from zone 9 in California or Oregon.

Also corkball, boxelder, elm and green ash are all native to Florida. If you had grown from local sources, they would have done fine in Tampa.

Assuming it was a tree that was not native to the area, if it didn't tolerate the heat, the tree might succomb to heat stress or some other disease. The soils in south florda can be very wet.

But the underlying problem may not be the heat at all but rather the lack of chilling hours to come out of dormancy.

There are some trees like red maple and elms and sycamore that can be grown there, but best to use a local type to ensure success. They do go dormant there, albeit very briefly. A tree from the north may not be able to go through that.

I accidentally put QV instead of QA in my post. I hadn't figured the heat zone thing.Why is it harder on a fairly northern tree to be in 100 F in Florida, than 100 F in Calif ? I know that one is humid and the other dry, but I would think humid is better for most plants,how does the difference effect the tree?

Actually, 100F is very, very rare in Florida. I have lived here 4 years and we have yet to hit 100F. It is much more common north of us.

Anyway, back to your question. The big difference is that it cools at night out west. Trees can get a rest at night. This is key to the success of species normally found in cooler climates. In the southeast, the high nighttime temps can lead to stress and also root-rot. Diseases are much more common in humid areas and many take advantage of stressed trees. Also, in California, many cold climate species actually perform much better there despite the overall minimum temps in winter being higher than in Florida. This is because they get a constant cooler temp. in winter (consistent highs in the 50s for example) and cool down at night (but stay above freezing). This provides the cooling needed for dormancy to be retained. Here, we have much wider swings in temp - can be in the 80s for a week, follower by 40s with lows in the 20s or even teens. These swings cause many temperate species to flush out too early and get damaged etc. If i could choose a climate to garden in, it would be the Bay Area of California. They can grow everything. You will see zone 9 palms growing next to white birch, bananas, cycads, monkey puzzle, blue spruce etc. It is mind-blowing what can be grown there.

The area of So Cal where I live gets yo yo temps. We've had more than a week of springlike weather but we mostly likely will get another spate of fairly cold weather and frost before winter's done. Frost is a regular occurrence every winter where I am and once in a blue moon we get snow. Most of the time, the very cold temps do not coincide with storms. Most of the time it's right after. Sometimes after a rain a cold wind will come up and turn the wet into ice, freezing the puddles and my van doors shut. It's like someone super glued it!

I think the determining factor in trees surviving here and not in Florida is the humidity. Humidity and heat together are a double whammy. I can get temps as high as 114 but only once every couple of years is that heat combined with high humidity and it lasts a couple of days at most.

It may get 100 degress in an area of california that can support trees but for how long? It probably drops down to 50 at night an most of the year the high temp is not that high.

Trees can tolerate 100+ degrees. When they start to get stressed is when heat and drought just never goes away.