Santa Rosa, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Santa Rosa, 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 Santa Rosa 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 Santa Rosa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Santa Rosa — the short answer
Santa Rosa, New Mexico: USDA zone 7a, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 7a is Santa Rosa's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Santa Rosa's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Santa Rosa
Each reading below is measured for Santa Rosa itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSanta Rosa runs about 218 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
MeasuredSanta Rosa sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Santa Rosa is in
Santa Rosa sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Santa Rosa's own centroid rather than borrowed from Guadalupe County.
What Grows in Santa Rosa
Every plant below cleared Santa Rosa's own zone 7a and its 218-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Santa Rosa?
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 Mar 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Santa Rosa
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Santa Rosa. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GUADALUPE COUNTY HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- CIRCLE K STORE NO - 8933Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- DIAMOND SHAMROCK 1284Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SANTA ROSA CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- DEEP ROCK 85Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ALLSUPS 291Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- PIKE GRAIN CO LAZY 3 BAR RANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SANTA ROSA RUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- HOTEL SHAWFORDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- JERRYS SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- LOVES COUNTRY STORE 285Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- REILLY RANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Santa Rosa'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 Santa Rosa.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Santa Rosa
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Santa Rosa, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 47 sites within ~10 miles of Santa Rosa. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Santa Rosa
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 Santa Rosa average
Your land is one point inside Santa Rosa
Everything above resolves to Santa Rosa as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Santa Rosa Average
Santa Rosa Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Santa Rosa
- ●One soil character for all of Santa Rosa
- ●Frost dates read at Santa Rosa's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Santa Rosa's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Santa Rosa
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Santa Rosa, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Santa Rosa averages can't show:
We read public map data around Santa Rosa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Santa Rosa average
How we know this about Santa Rosa
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 Santa Rosa’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 Santa Rosa
When does frost risk typically end in Santa Rosa?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Santa Rosa typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Santa Rosa?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Santa Rosa typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 218 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Santa Rosa?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Santa Rosa sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 23, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Santa Rosa?
The federal record around Santa Rosa shows 50 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (47), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Santa Rosa?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Santa Rosa's scale — its 7a band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Santa Rosa'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 Santa Rosa’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Santa Rosa's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,199 acres it covers and 50 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Santa Rosa's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Santa Rosa's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Nov 6 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 50 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Santa Rosa, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Santa Rosa's boundary and the 3,199 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Santa Rosa's own centroid, the Southwestern TablelandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Santa Rosa's 3,199 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Guadalupe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Guadalupe County
- The growing challenges every New Mexico grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom New Mexico
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Guadalupe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Santa Rosa's 3,199 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Santa Rosa you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,199 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Santa Rosa-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Mexico
Wider growing context
What grows across New MexicoSanta Rosa sits outside our named growing regions, so New Mexico as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides