Roper, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — 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, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Roper, 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 Roper 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 Roper — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Roper — the short answer
Roper, North Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 260 days between hard freezes, across 548 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- Washington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- Washington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~260
- Washington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 548 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Washington County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Roper's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Roper's 260-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Roper
Each reading below is measured for Roper itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsRoper runs about 260 days between hard freezes (read from Washington County, the closest normal to Roper) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredRoper sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Roper is in
Roper sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Roper's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Roper
Every plant below cleared Roper's own zone 8b and its 260-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Roper?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Documented around Roper
Survey cells within 31 miles of Roper checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 54 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Roper
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Roper. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BEANS CORNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- FIVE STAR FUELS /ROPER FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- WS-140 WASHINGTON COUNTY 1Nitrate · 2600 ft
- WS-044 ROPER MUNNitrate · 1.3 mi
- WASHINGTON COUNTY WATER SYSTEMPFAS · 2.1 mi
- WS-048 NC STATE DEPT OF AGRNitrate · 2.5 mi
- WALGREENS #16130Brownfields · 2.5 mi
- WS-103 LU-07Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- HELENA AGRI-ENTERPRISES, LLC DBA HELENA CHEMICAL COMPANYBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- PHELPS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- RAY CLIFTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- NCSU VERNON JAMES RESEARCH & EXT CTRBrownfields · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Roper'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 Roper.
Total Sites
155
within ~10 miles of Roper
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Roper
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Roper
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Roper, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 98 sites within ~10 miles of Roper. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Roper
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 Roper average
Your land is one point inside Roper
Everything above resolves to Roper as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 548 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Washington County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Roper Average
Roper Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Roper
- ●One soil character for all of Roper
- ●Frost dates read at Roper's scale: Mar 11 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Roper's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Roper
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Roper, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Roper averages can't show:
We read public map data around Roper — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Roper average
How we know this about Roper
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 Washington County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Roper
When does frost risk typically end in Roper?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Roper typically lands around Mar 11, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Roper?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Roper typically arrives around Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 12, so the watching starts about Oct 27 — about 260 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Roper?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Roper sees about 260 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 12, about 225 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Roper?
The federal record around Roper is a meaningful one — 155 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (98), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Roper?
From about Oct 27 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Roper's scale — its 8b band and its 260-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Roper'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 Roper’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Roper's own scale — the 548 acres it covers and 155 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Roper's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 155 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Roper, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Roper's boundary and the 548 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~260-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Roper's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Roper checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Roper has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Washington County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Roper's 548 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington 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 Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Roper's 548 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Roper you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 548 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 Roper-wide figureread your own land →
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