Rose Bud, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rose Bud, 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 Rose Bud 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 Rose Bud — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rose Bud — the short answer
Rose Bud, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 265 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~265
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Rose Bud's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rose Bud's 265-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rose Bud
Each reading below is measured for Rose Bud itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRose Bud runs about 265 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredRose Bud sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Rose Bud is in
Rose Bud sits in the Arkansas Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rose Bud's own centroid rather than borrowed from White County.
What Grows in Rose Bud
Every plant below cleared Rose Bud's own zone 8a and its 265-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rose Bud?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — 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 Rose Bud
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rose Bud. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 08N10W17AAD1Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- DOUBLEBEES #139Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- BURLISON GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- ROSE BUD QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- SHERWOOD HOMETOWN GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- ROSE BUD SCHOOL BUS SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CROCKETT GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- ATLAS ASPHALT, INC. - ROSE BUDBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- CK ASPHALT LLCBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- SAM'C CLUB FUELING STATN #4749Underground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- HOPEWELL GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- APEX ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICESBrownfields · 6.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rose Bud'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 Rose Bud.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rose Bud
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rose Bud
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rose Bud, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 29 sites within ~10 miles of Rose Bud. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Rose Bud
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 Rose Bud average
Your land is one point inside Rose Bud
Everything above resolves to Rose Bud as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K acres. 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 town 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 Rose Bud Average
Rose Bud Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Rose Bud
- ●One soil character for all of Rose Bud
- ●Frost dates read at Rose Bud's scale: Mar 7 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rose Bud's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rose Bud
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rose Bud, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rose Bud averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rose Bud — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rose Bud average
How we know this about Rose Bud
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Rose Bud’s own record; 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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Rose Bud
When does frost risk typically end in Rose Bud?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rose Bud typically lands around Mar 7, 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 Mar 28.
When is the first frost in Rose Bud?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rose Bud typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 265 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rose Bud?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rose Bud sees about 265 frost-free days — roughly Mar 7 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 28 to Nov 13, about 230 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rose Bud?
The federal record around Rose Bud is light — 45 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (29), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.7 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Rose Bud?
From about Oct 28 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 Nov 27 (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 Nov 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rose Bud's scale — its 8a band and its 265-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rose Bud'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 Rose Bud’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rose Bud's own scale — its own ~265-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,865 acres it covers and 45 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rose Bud's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rose Bud's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 7 and Nov 27 and the ~265-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 45 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rose Bud, the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rose Bud's boundary and the 3,865 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~265-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rose Bud's own centroid, the Arkansas ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rose Bud's 3,865 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom White County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom White County
- The growing challenges every Arkansas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Arkansas
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom White County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rose Bud's 3,865 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rose Bud you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,865 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 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 Rose Bud-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arkansas
Wider growing context
What grows across ArkansasRose Bud sits outside our named growing regions, so Arkansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides