Hillrose, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hillrose, 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 Hillrose 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 Hillrose — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hillrose — the short answer
Hillrose, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 175 days between hard freezes, across 121 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~175
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 121 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 5b is Hillrose's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hillrose's 175-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hillrose
Each reading below is measured for Hillrose itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHillrose runs about 175 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredHillrose sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Hillrose is in
Hillrose sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Hillrose's own centroid rather than borrowed from Morgan County.
What Grows in Hillrose
Every plant below cleared Hillrose's own zone 5b and its 175-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hillrose?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Hillrose
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hillrose. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Hillrose Gas & BaitUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- PARACHUTE RANCH, INCCAFO · 1.3 mi
- SB00405502BCD NAWQA 10Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- SB00505528CCC NAWQA 12Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- SB00405612AAB USGS 402002103351401Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- PINNEO FEEDLOT, LTDCAFO · 4.5 mi
- FAA Brush RclrUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- SB00505420CCD USGS 402245103262901Nitrate · 5.7 mi
- UNOCAL PIPELINE CO - GOODALLBrownfields · 5.7 mi
- Teter Oilfield ConstructionUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- CDOT BrushUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
- SB Travel StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hillrose'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 Hillrose.
Total Sites
69
within ~10 miles of Hillrose
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hillrose
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hillrose
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hillrose, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hillrose — CAFO (5 sites) and Nitrate (18 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Hillrose
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 Hillrose average
Your land is one point inside Hillrose
Everything above resolves to Hillrose as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 121 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 Hillrose Average
Hillrose Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Hillrose
- ●One soil character for all of Hillrose
- ●Frost dates read at Hillrose's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hillrose's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hillrose
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hillrose, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hillrose averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hillrose — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hillrose average
How we know this about Hillrose
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 Hillrose’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 Hillrose
When does frost risk typically end in Hillrose?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hillrose typically lands around Apr 23, 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 May 14.
When is the first frost in Hillrose?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hillrose typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 175 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hillrose?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hillrose sees about 175 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Oct 1, about 140 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hillrose?
The federal record around Hillrose shows 69 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (33), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Hillrose?
From about Sep 15 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 Oct 15 (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 Oct 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hillrose's scale — its 5b band and its 175-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hillrose'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 Hillrose’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hillrose's own scale — its own ~175-day season between 28°F freezes, the 121 acres it covers and 69 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hillrose's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hillrose's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 15 and the ~175-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 69 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hillrose, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hillrose's boundary and the 121 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~175-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hillrose's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hillrose's 121 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Morgan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Morgan County
- The growing challenges every Colorado grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Colorado
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Morgan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hillrose's 121 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hillrose you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 121 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Hillrose-wide figureread your own land →
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