Rosamond, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Rosamond, 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 Rosamond 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 Rosamond — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rosamond — the short answer
Rosamond, California: USDA zone 8b, about 273 days between hard freezes, across 33K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~273
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 33K 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 8b is Rosamond's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rosamond's 273-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rosamond
Each reading below is measured for Rosamond itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRosamond runs about 273 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
MeasuredRosamond sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Rosamond is in
Rosamond sits in the Mojave Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Rosamond's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Kern County is mostly Central California Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Rosamond
Every plant below cleared Rosamond's own zone 8b and its 273-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rosamond?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Rosamond
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rosamond. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 009N013W24C004SNitrate · 1000 ft
- 3103 W 50TH STREETSuperfund · 1700 ft
- STEVE COBBETT DBA STEVE COBBETT TRUCKINGBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- 009N013W23B001SNitrate · 0.7 mi
- 009N013W23B002SNitrate · 0.7 mi
- ROSAMOND COMMUNITY SERVICE DISTRICTBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL #16540Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- ANTELOPE VALLEY EAST KERN WATER AGENCYBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- ROSAMOND SUBSTATIONBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- 009N013W23E001SNitrate · 1.3 mi
- 009N013W22A001SNitrate · 1.4 mi
- OSAGE INDUSTRIESSuperfund · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rosamond'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 Rosamond.
Total Sites
241
within ~10 miles of Rosamond
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rosamond
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rosamond
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rosamond, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Rosamond — Nitrate (126 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Rosamond
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 Rosamond average
Your land is one point inside Rosamond
Everything above resolves to Rosamond as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 33K 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 Rosamond Average
Rosamond Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Rosamond
- ●One soil character for all of Rosamond
- ●Frost dates read at Rosamond's scale: Feb 20 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rosamond's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rosamond
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rosamond, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rosamond averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rosamond — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rosamond average
How we know this about Rosamond
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 Rosamond’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 Rosamond
When does frost risk typically end in Rosamond?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rosamond typically lands around Feb 20, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Rosamond?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rosamond typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 273 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rosamond?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rosamond sees about 273 frost-free days — roughly Feb 20 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 13 to Nov 6, about 238 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rosamond?
The federal record around Rosamond is a meaningful one — 241 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (126), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Rosamond?
From about Oct 21 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rosamond's scale — its 8b band and its 273-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rosamond'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 Rosamond’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rosamond's own scale — its own ~273-day season between 28°F freezes, the 33,358 acres it covers and 241 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rosamond's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rosamond's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 20 and Nov 20 and the ~273-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 241 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rosamond, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rosamond's boundary and the 33,358 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~273-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Rosamond sits in the Mojave Basin and Range — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rosamond's 33,358 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kern County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kern County
- The growing challenges every California grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom California
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Kern County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rosamond's 33,358 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rosamond you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 33,358 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Rosamond-wide figureread your own land →