Belle Rose, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Belle Rose, 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 Belle Rose 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 Belle Rose — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Belle Rose — the short answer
Belle Rose, Louisiana: USDA zone 9a, about 318 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 27
- Assumption Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 11
- Assumption Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~318
- Assumption Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Assumption Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Belle Rose's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Belle Rose's 318-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Belle Rose
Each reading below is measured for Belle Rose itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBelle Rose runs about 318 days between hard freezes (read from Assumption Parish, the closest normal to Belle Rose) — 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
MeasuredBelle Rose sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Belle Rose is in
Belle Rose sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Belle Rose's own centroid rather than borrowed from Assumption Parish.
What Grows in Belle Rose
Every plant below cleared Belle Rose's own zone 9a and its 318-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Belle Rose?
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 Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Belle Rose
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Belle Rose. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WELBUILT INSTRUMENT COBrownfields · 2000 ft
- LULA WESTFIELD LLC - LULA FACTORYBrownfields · 2200 ft
- Peter RussoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- P&H Home Health CareUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Belle Rose ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Belle Rose GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CUSTOM PAINT & BODY SHOPBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- BELLE ROSE PAINT & BODY SHOPBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- Cane AirUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- BOUDREAUX PLANTIN COBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- Boudreaux Plantin CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Moses MooreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Belle Rose'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 Belle Rose.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Belle Rose
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Belle Rose
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Belle Rose
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 Belle Rose average
Your land is one point inside Belle Rose
Everything above resolves to Belle Rose as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Assumption Parish’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Belle Rose Average
Belle Rose Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Belle Rose
- ●One soil character for all of Belle Rose
- ●Frost dates read at Belle Rose's scale: Jan 27 to Dec 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Belle Rose's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Belle Rose
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Belle Rose, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Belle Rose averages can't show:
We read public map data around Belle Rose — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Belle Rose average
How we know this about Belle Rose
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 Assumption Parish’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Belle Rose
When does frost risk typically end in Belle Rose?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Belle Rose typically lands around Jan 27, 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 Feb 17.
When is the first frost in Belle Rose?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Belle Rose typically arrives around Dec 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 27, so the watching starts about Nov 11 — about 318 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Belle Rose?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Belle Rose sees about 318 frost-free days — roughly Jan 27 through Dec 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 17 to Nov 27, about 283 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Belle Rose?
The federal record around Belle Rose is a meaningful one — 305 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (136), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Belle Rose?
From about Nov 11 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 Dec 11 (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 Dec 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Belle Rose's scale — its 9a band and its 318-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Belle Rose'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 Belle Rose’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Belle Rose's own scale — the 3,434 acres it covers and 305 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Belle Rose's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 305 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Belle Rose, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Belle Rose's boundary and the 3,434 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~318-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Belle Rose's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Belle Rose has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Assumption Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Belle Rose's 3,434 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Assumption County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Assumption County
- The growing challenges every Louisiana grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Louisiana
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Assumption County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Belle Rose's 3,434 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Belle Rose you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,434 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Belle Rose-wide figureread your own land →