Rose City, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rose City, 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 Rose City 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 Rose City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Rose City — the short answer
Rose City, Michigan: USDA zone 5a, about 149 days between hard freezes, across 689 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~149
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 689 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 5a is Rose City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rose City's 149-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rose City
Each reading below is measured for Rose City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRose City runs about 149 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredRose City sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Rose City is in
Rose City sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Rose City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ogemaw County.
What Grows in Rose City
Every plant below cleared Rose City's own zone 5a and its 149-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rose City?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Rose City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rose City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Alltel Michigan IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- Resners Chevrolet Sales & ServicUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- N.m.c Shop-n-go #285Underground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- FERNELIUS CHEVROLET INCBrownfields · 250 ft
- Milton L. HarringtonUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- Forward Rose CityUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- Rose City Feed & TackUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Rose City Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- City of Rose City DPWUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Rose City ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- City of Rose City (Millpond Property)Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Rose City EZ MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rose City'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 Rose City.
Total Sites
50
within ~10 miles of Rose City
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rose City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rose City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rose City, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 37 sites within ~10 miles of Rose City. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Rose City
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 Rose City average
Your land is one point inside Rose City
Everything above resolves to Rose City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 689 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 Rose City Average
Rose City Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Rose City
- ●One soil character for all of Rose City
- ●Frost dates read at Rose City's scale: May 10 to Oct 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rose City's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rose City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rose City, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rose City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rose City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rose City average
How we know this about Rose City
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 Rose City’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 Rose City
When does frost risk typically end in Rose City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rose City typically lands around May 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in Rose City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rose City typically arrives around Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 22, so the watching starts about Sep 6 — about 149 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rose City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rose City sees about 149 frost-free days — roughly May 10 through Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 31 to Sep 22, about 114 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rose City?
The federal record around Rose City shows 50 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (37), 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 gardeners stretch the season in Rose City?
With about 149 frost-free days between hard freezes, Rose City rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 177 to 205 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 10 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Rose City's scale — its 5a band and its 149-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rose City'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 Rose City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rose City's own scale — its own ~149-day season between 28°F freezes, the 689 acres it covers and 50 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rose City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rose City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 10 and Oct 6 and the ~149-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 50 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rose City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rose City's boundary and the 689 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~149-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rose City's own centroid, the Northern Lakes and ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rose City's 689 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ogemaw County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ogemaw County
- The growing challenges every Michigan grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Michigan
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Ogemaw County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rose City's 689 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rose City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 689 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 Rose City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Growing region
Nearby growing guides