Rockville, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Rockville, 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 Rockville 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 Rockville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rockville — the short answer
Rockville, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 226 days between hard freezes, across 211 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- 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
- ~226
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 211 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 6b is Rockville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rockville's 226-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rockville
Each reading below is measured for Rockville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRockville runs about 226 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
MeasuredRockville sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Rockville is in
Rockville sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Rockville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bates County.
What Grows in Rockville
Every plant below cleared Rockville's own zone 6b and its 226-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rockville?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (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 Rockville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rockville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HEIMAN AGRI SERVICES, INC.CAFO · 500 ft
- WHITEMAN AFB JULIET-5Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- T38N R29W 33DDD1Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- T38N R29W 07CDD1Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- MDC SCHELL OSAGE CABrownfields · 4.5 mi
- SCHELL-OSAGE WILDLIFE AREAUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- WHITEMAN AFB JULIET-1BUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- WHITEMAN AFB JULIET-1AUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- T39N R29W 22CCB1Nitrate · 4.7 mi
- GM FEEDLOT, INCCAFO · 4.7 mi
- WHITEMAN AFB JULIET-4Underground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- WHITEMAN AFB JULIET-8Underground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rockville'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 Rockville.
Total Sites
43
within ~10 miles of Rockville
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
4 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rockville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rockville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rockville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Rockville — CAFO (4 sites) and Nitrate (20 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Rockville
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 Rockville average
Your land is one point inside Rockville
Everything above resolves to Rockville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 211 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 Rockville Average
Rockville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Rockville
- ●One soil character for all of Rockville
- ●Frost dates read at Rockville's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rockville's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rockville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rockville, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rockville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rockville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rockville average
How we know this about Rockville
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 Rockville’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 Rockville
When does frost risk typically end in Rockville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rockville typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Rockville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rockville 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 226 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rockville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rockville sees about 226 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 24, about 191 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rockville?
The federal record around Rockville is light — 43 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (20), the nearest CAFO record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Rockville?
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 Rockville's scale — its 6b band and its 226-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rockville'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 Rockville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rockville's own scale — its own ~226-day season between 28°F freezes, the 211 acres it covers and 43 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rockville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rockville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 7 and the ~226-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 43 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rockville, the closest CAFO record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rockville's boundary and the 211 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~226-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rockville's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rockville's 211 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bates County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bates County
- The growing challenges every Missouri grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Missouri
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Bates County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rockville's 211 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rockville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 211 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest CAFO 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 Rockville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriRockville sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides