Rossville, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rossville, 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 Rossville 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 Rossville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rossville — the short answer
Rossville, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 895 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 895 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 6a is Rossville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rossville's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rossville
Each reading below is measured for Rossville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRossville runs about 202 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredRossville sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Rossville is in
Rossville sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rossville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Vermilion County.
What Grows in Rossville
Every plant below cleared Rossville's own zone 6a and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rossville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Rossville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rossville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- John R. Bray PartnershipUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- Rossville Alvin Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- Contel Of Il IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- B&L Auto SerUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Casey's General Store #2637Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- J&R USED TIRE SERVICESuperfund · 1400 ft
- Perkins Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Village of RossvilleUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Rossville Grain CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- P & E I Truck LinesUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE 12494Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- Former Minuteman Gas MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rossville'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 Rossville.
Total Sites
97
within ~10 miles of Rossville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rossville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rossville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rossville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Rossville — Superfund (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (70 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Rossville
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 Rossville average
Your land is one point inside Rossville
Everything above resolves to Rossville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 895 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 Rossville Average
Rossville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Rossville
- ●One soil character for all of Rossville
- ●Frost dates read at Rossville's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rossville's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rossville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rossville, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rossville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rossville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rossville average
How we know this about Rossville
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 Rossville’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 Rossville
When does frost risk typically end in Rossville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rossville typically lands around Apr 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 Apr 28.
When is the first frost in Rossville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rossville typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rossville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rossville sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 12, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rossville?
The federal record around Rossville is a meaningful one — 97 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (70), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Rossville?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rossville's scale — its 6a band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rossville'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 Rossville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rossville's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 895 acres it covers and 97 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rossville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rossville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Oct 26 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 97 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rossville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rossville's boundary and the 895 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rossville's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rossville's 895 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Vermilion County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Vermilion County
- The growing challenges every Illinois grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Illinois
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Vermilion County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rossville's 895 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rossville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 895 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 Rossville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisRossville sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides