Rollins, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rollins, 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 Rollins 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 Rollins — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rollins — the short answer
Rollins, Montana: USDA zone 6a, about 164 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~164
- 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 Rollins's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rollins's 164-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rollins
Each reading below is measured for Rollins itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRollins runs about 164 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
MeasuredRollins 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 Rollins is in
Rollins sits in the Northern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Rollins's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lake County.
What Grows in Rollins
Every plant below cleared Rollins's own zone 6a and its 164-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rollins?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 10 — 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 Rollins
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rollins. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- M & S MEATS AND SAUSAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- TABLE BAY RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- POINTS NORTH TRADING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Mosher ProspectMining · 5.0 mi
- STANDING ARROW TRADING POST INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- MDOT LAKESIDEUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
- FEDERAL AVIATION ADMIN LAKESIDEUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
- Unamed ProspectMining · 7.0 mi
- Chief Cliff MineMining · 7.0 mi
- Unnamed ProspectMining · 7.0 mi
- PROCTOR STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.5 mi
- HAROLD R TAYLOR & EGY HURGHADAUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rollins'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 Rollins.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rollins
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rollins
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rollins, Mining runs higher than the national average — 12 sites within ~10 miles of Rollins. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Rollins
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 Rollins average
Your land is one point inside Rollins
Everything above resolves to Rollins 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 Rollins Average
Rollins Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Rollins
- ●One soil character for all of Rollins
- ●Frost dates read at Rollins's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rollins's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rollins
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rollins, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rollins averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rollins — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rollins average
How we know this about Rollins
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 Rollins’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 Rollins
When does frost risk typically end in Rollins?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rollins typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Rollins?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rollins typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 164 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rollins?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rollins sees about 164 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Sep 26, about 129 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rollins?
The federal record around Rollins shows 42 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (23), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles 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 I protect my plants from frost in Rollins?
From about Sep 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rollins's scale — its 6a band and its 164-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rollins'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 Rollins’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rollins's own scale — its own ~164-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,839 acres it covers and 42 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rollins's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rollins's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 10 and the ~164-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 42 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rollins, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rollins's boundary and the 1,839 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~164-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rollins's own centroid, the Northern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rollins's 1,839 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lake County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lake 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 Lake County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rollins's 1,839 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rollins you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,839 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Rollins-wide figureread your own land →
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