Roselle, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Roselle, 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 Roselle 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 Roselle — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Roselle — the short answer
Roselle, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 241 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~241
- 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 7b is Roselle's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Roselle's 241-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Roselle
Each reading below is measured for Roselle itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRoselle runs about 241 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
MeasuredRoselle sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Roselle is in
Roselle sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Roselle's own centroid rather than borrowed from Union County.
What Grows in Roselle
Every plant below cleared Roselle's own zone 7b and its 241-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Roselle?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Roselle
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Roselle, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Roselle
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Roselle. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ROSELLE FIRE HOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- ROSELLE PAPER COMPANY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- 95134 GETTY WATKINS (FORMER)Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- ARTISTIC CREATIONS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- ROSELLE GLOBE FUEL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- WHITE BROS TRUCKING COBrownfields · 1700 ft
- TURRI DISPOSAL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- NMK RESOURCES INC/ROSELLEBrownfields · 1700 ft
- PAMARCO INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- PAMARCO INCBrownfields · 1800 ft
- PAMARCO INCToxics Release Inventory · 1800 ft
- ROSELLE BORO HALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Roselle'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 Roselle.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Roselle
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Roselle
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Roselle, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Roselle — Superfund (159 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (4,352 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Roselle
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 Roselle average
Your land is one point inside Roselle
Everything above resolves to Roselle 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 Roselle Average
Roselle Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Roselle
- ●One soil character for all of Roselle
- ●Frost dates read at Roselle's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Roselle's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Roselle
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Roselle, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Roselle averages can't show:
We read public map data around Roselle — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Roselle average
How we know this about Roselle
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 Roselle’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 Roselle
When does frost risk typically end in Roselle?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Roselle typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Roselle?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Roselle typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 241 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Roselle?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Roselle sees about 241 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Nov 7, about 206 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Roselle?
The federal record around Roselle runs heavier than most — 7,015 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (4,352), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Roselle?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Roselle's scale — its 7b band and its 241-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Roselle'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 Roselle’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Roselle's own scale — its own ~241-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,686 acres it covers and 7,015 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Roselle's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Roselle's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 21 and the ~241-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 7,015 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Roselle, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Roselle's boundary and the 1,686 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~241-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Roselle's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Rosellelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Roselle's 1,686 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Union County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Union County
- The growing challenges every New Jersey grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom New Jersey
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Union County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Roselle's 1,686 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Roselle you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,686 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 Roselle-wide figureread your own land →