Rothbury, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Rothbury, 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 Rothbury 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 Rothbury — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Rothbury — the short answer
Rothbury, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 183 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~183
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Rothbury's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rothbury's 183-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rothbury
Each reading below is measured for Rothbury itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRothbury runs about 183 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
MeasuredRothbury 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 Rothbury is in
Rothbury sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rothbury's own centroid rather than borrowed from Oceana County.
What Grows in Rothbury
Every plant below cleared Rothbury's own zone 6a and its 183-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rothbury?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Rothbury
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rothbury. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WESCO ENERGYBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- WESCO INCBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- Rothbury Wesco 51Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Dominics Market IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- MI DEPT/TRANSPORTATIONBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- Felt Fabricating IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- FELT FABRICATING INCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- Grant Twp Fire DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- BARBER STEEL FOUNDRY CORPORATIONToxics Release Inventory · 1.2 mi
- BARBER STEEL FOUNDRY CORPORATIONBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- Kurdziel Iron Of Rothbury IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- MI DEPT/TRANSPORTATION BRIDGE (S03-64014)Brownfields · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rothbury'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 Rothbury.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rothbury
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rothbury
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rothbury, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Rothbury — Superfund (6 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (15 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Rothbury
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 Rothbury average
Your land is one point inside Rothbury
Everything above resolves to Rothbury as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Rothbury Average
Rothbury Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Rothbury
- ●One soil character for all of Rothbury
- ●Frost dates read at Rothbury's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rothbury's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rothbury
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rothbury, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rothbury averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rothbury — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rothbury average
How we know this about Rothbury
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 Rothbury’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 Rothbury
When does frost risk typically end in Rothbury?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rothbury typically lands around Apr 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 May 18.
When is the first frost in Rothbury?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rothbury typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 183 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rothbury?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rothbury sees about 183 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Oct 13, about 148 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rothbury?
The federal record around Rothbury is a meaningful one — 185 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (96), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.7 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 Rothbury?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rothbury's scale — its 6a band and its 183-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rothbury'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 Rothbury’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rothbury's own scale — its own ~183-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,574 acres it covers and 185 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rothbury's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rothbury's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 27 and the ~183-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 185 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rothbury, the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rothbury's boundary and the 1,574 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~183-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rothbury's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rothbury's 1,574 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Oceana County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Oceana 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 Oceana County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rothbury's 1,574 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rothbury you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,574 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 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 Rothbury-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganRothbury sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides