Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Roanoke Rapids, 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 Roanoke Rapids 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 Roanoke Rapids — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Roanoke Rapids — the short answer
Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 253 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~253
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 6K 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 8a is Roanoke Rapids's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Roanoke Rapids's 253-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Roanoke Rapids
Each reading below is measured for Roanoke Rapids itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRoanoke Rapids runs about 253 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
MeasuredRoanoke Rapids sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Roanoke Rapids is in
Roanoke Rapids sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Roanoke Rapids's own centroid rather than borrowed from Halifax County.
What Grows in Roanoke Rapids
Every plant below cleared Roanoke Rapids's own zone 8a and its 253-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Roanoke Rapids?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 22 — 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 Roanoke Rapids
Spotted lanternfly documented 11 miles from Roanoke Rapids, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Roanoke Rapids
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Roanoke Rapids. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GRADY L. HUX CONSTRUCTION CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- 10TH STREET BLUE FLAMEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- GOODYEAR AUTO SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 1600 ft
- GOODYEAR ASCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #3387Brownfields · 1700 ft
- DIXIE MART 14Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- NATIONAL GUARD ARMORYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- AMERICAN BAKERIES CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- FAST FARE INCBrownfields · 1800 ft
- MERITA BREADUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- DARYL'SUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- CAR CORNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Roanoke Rapids'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 Roanoke Rapids.
Total Sites
336
within ~10 miles of Roanoke Rapids
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Roanoke Rapids
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Roanoke Rapids
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Roanoke Rapids, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 256 sites within ~10 miles of Roanoke Rapids. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Roanoke Rapids
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 Roanoke Rapids average
Your land is one point inside Roanoke Rapids
Everything above resolves to Roanoke Rapids as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Roanoke Rapids Average
Roanoke Rapids Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Roanoke Rapids
- ●One soil character for all of Roanoke Rapids
- ●Frost dates read at Roanoke Rapids's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Roanoke Rapids's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Roanoke Rapids
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Roanoke Rapids averages can't show:
We read public map data around Roanoke Rapids — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Roanoke Rapids average
How we know this about Roanoke Rapids
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 Roanoke Rapids’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 Roanoke Rapids
When does frost risk typically end in Roanoke Rapids?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Roanoke Rapids typically lands around Mar 14, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Roanoke Rapids?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Roanoke Rapids typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 253 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Roanoke Rapids?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Roanoke Rapids sees about 253 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 8, about 218 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Roanoke Rapids?
The federal record around Roanoke Rapids is a meaningful one — 336 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (256), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 I protect my plants from frost in Roanoke Rapids?
From about Oct 23 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Roanoke Rapids's scale — its 8a band and its 253-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Roanoke Rapids'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 Roanoke Rapids’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Roanoke Rapids's own scale — its own ~253-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,344 acres it covers and 336 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Roanoke Rapids's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Roanoke Rapids's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 14 and Nov 22 and the ~253-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 336 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Roanoke Rapids, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Roanoke Rapids's boundary and the 6,344 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~253-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Roanoke Rapids's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Roanoke Rapidslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Roanoke Rapids's 6,344 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Halifax County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Halifax County
- The growing challenges every North Carolina grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom North Carolina
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Halifax County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Roanoke Rapids's 6,344 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Roanoke Rapids you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,344 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Roanoke Rapids-wide figureread your own land →