Montrose, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Montrose, 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 Montrose 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 Montrose — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Montrose — the short answer
Montrose, Iowa: USDA zone 6a, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 774 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 774 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 Montrose's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Montrose's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Montrose
Each reading below is measured for Montrose itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMontrose runs about 224 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
MeasuredMontrose 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 Montrose is in
Montrose sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Montrose's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Lee County is mostly Central Irregular Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Montrose
Every plant below cleared Montrose's own zone 6a and its 224-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Montrose?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — 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 Montrose
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Montrose. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PARK RIDGE WORKSHOPBrownfields · 700 ft
- MONTROSE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- JUNKINS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- LEE CO CONSERVATION BOARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE 2318Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- HUNOLD ELEVATORUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- FORMER JET GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 066N05W10BB 03223 1948Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- 066N05W03CDAC 27532 1985Montrose 2Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 066N05W03CDAA 18117 1966Montrose 1Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 066N05W16ACD 09508 1957Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- Nauvoo Sewage Treatment PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Montrose'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 Montrose.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Montrose
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Montrose
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Montrose, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Montrose — Toxics Release Inventory (32 sites) and Nitrate (86 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Montrose
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 Montrose average
Your land is one point inside Montrose
Everything above resolves to Montrose as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 774 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 city 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 Montrose Average
Montrose Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Montrose
- ●One soil character for all of Montrose
- ●Frost dates read at Montrose's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Montrose's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Montrose
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Montrose, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Montrose averages can't show:
We read public map data around Montrose — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Montrose average
How we know this about Montrose
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Montrose’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Montrose
When does frost risk typically end in Montrose?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Montrose typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Montrose?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Montrose typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 224 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Montrose?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Montrose sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 24, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Montrose?
The federal record around Montrose is a meaningful one — 320 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (135), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Montrose?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Montrose's scale — its 6a band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Montrose'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 Montrose’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Montrose's own scale — its own ~224-day season between 28°F freezes, the 774 acres it covers and 320 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Montrose's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Montrose's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 7 and the ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 320 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Montrose, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Montrose's boundary and the 774 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Montrose sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Montrose's 774 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lee County
- The growing challenges every Iowa grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Iowa
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Lee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Montrose's 774 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Montrose you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 774 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Montrose-wide figureread your own land →