Rhodes, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Rhodes, 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 Rhodes 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 Rhodes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rhodes — the short answer
Rhodes, Montana: USDA zone 5a, about 141 days between hard freezes, across 428 acres of town.
- 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)
- Sep 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~141
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 428 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 Rhodes's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rhodes's 141-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rhodes
Each reading below is measured for Rhodes itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRhodes runs about 141 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
MeasuredRhodes 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 Rhodes is in
Rhodes sits in the Northern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Rhodes's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Flathead County is mostly Canadian Rockies. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Rhodes
Every plant below cleared Rhodes's own zone 5a and its 141-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rhodes?
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 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 Sep 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
What's on the federal record near Rhodes
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rhodes. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 29N22W21BB 01Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- TUTVEDT FARMSCAFO · 3.6 mi
- GROSSWILER DAIRY W VALLEY DRUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- P & S FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- 29N22W10DC 01Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- HOUSING & URBAN DEVELOPMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- INDUSTRIAL WOOD PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- 29N22W27DD 01Nitrate · 5.1 mi
- SKY AIR ENTERPRISESUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- Unnamed Silver & LeadMining · 5.4 mi
- KOENIG FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- WOODRINGS LANDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rhodes'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 Rhodes.
Total Sites
215
within ~10 miles of Rhodes
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rhodes
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rhodes
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 Rhodes
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 Rhodes average
Your land is one point inside Rhodes
Everything above resolves to Rhodes as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 428 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 Rhodes Average
Rhodes Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Rhodes
- ●One soil character for all of Rhodes
- ●Frost dates read at Rhodes's scale: May 10 to Sep 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rhodes's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rhodes
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rhodes, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rhodes averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rhodes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rhodes average
How we know this about Rhodes
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 Rhodes’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 Rhodes
When does frost risk typically end in Rhodes?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rhodes 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 Rhodes?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rhodes typically arrives around Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 14, so the watching starts about Aug 29 — about 141 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rhodes?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rhodes sees about 141 frost-free days — roughly May 10 through Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 31 to Sep 14, about 106 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rhodes?
The federal record around Rhodes is a meaningful one — 215 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (131), the nearest Nitrate record about 2.8 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 gardeners stretch the season in Rhodes?
With about 141 frost-free days between hard freezes, Rhodes 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 169 to 197 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 Rhodes's scale — its 5a band and its 141-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rhodes'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 Rhodes’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rhodes's own scale — its own ~141-day season between 28°F freezes, the 428 acres it covers and 215 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rhodes's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rhodes's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 10 and Sep 28 and the ~141-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 215 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rhodes, the closest Nitrate record about 2.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rhodes's boundary and the 428 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~141-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Rhodes sits in the Northern Rockies — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rhodes's 428 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Flathead County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Flathead County
- The growing challenges every Montana grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Montana
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Flathead County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rhodes's 428 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rhodes you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 428 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 2.8 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 Rhodes-wide figureread your own land →
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