Roxboro, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Roxboro, 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 Roxboro 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 Roxboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Roxboro — the short answer
Roxboro, North Carolina: USDA zone 7b, about 236 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~236
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K 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 Roxboro's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Roxboro's 236-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Roxboro
Each reading below is measured for Roxboro itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRoxboro runs about 236 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
MeasuredRoxboro 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 Roxboro is in
Roxboro sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Roxboro's own centroid rather than borrowed from Person County.
What Grows in Roxboro
Every plant below cleared Roxboro's own zone 7b and its 236-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Roxboro?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Roxboro
Survey cells within 31 miles of Roxboro checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 38 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Roxboro
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Roxboro. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FOOD MART 1Underground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- SOUTHERN RAILWAY COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- WALGREENS 19008Brownfields · 2000 ft
- MRS. TASSIE CLAYTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- TOM`S AUTO SUPPLYBrownfields · 2200 ft
- STOP & SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- WINNER'S #5Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- ROXBORO-PERSON COUNTY LANDFILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- COUNTRY CORNER STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- KAY'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- COMMUNITY SHORT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- J.C. BUCHANAN SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Roxboro'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 Roxboro.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Roxboro
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Roxboro
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Roxboro, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 169 sites within ~10 miles of Roxboro. 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 Roxboro
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 Roxboro average
Your land is one point inside Roxboro
Everything above resolves to Roxboro as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Roxboro Average
Roxboro Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Roxboro
- ●One soil character for all of Roxboro
- ●Frost dates read at Roxboro's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Roxboro's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Roxboro
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Roxboro, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Roxboro averages can't show:
We read public map data around Roxboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Roxboro average
How we know this about Roxboro
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 Roxboro’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 Roxboro
When does frost risk typically end in Roxboro?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Roxboro typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Roxboro?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Roxboro typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 236 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Roxboro?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Roxboro sees about 236 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Oct 30, about 201 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Roxboro?
The federal record around Roxboro is a meaningful one — 257 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (169), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Roxboro?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Roxboro's scale — its 7b band and its 236-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Roxboro'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 Roxboro’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Roxboro's own scale — its own ~236-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,743 acres it covers and 257 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Roxboro's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Roxboro's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 13 and the ~236-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 257 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Roxboro, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Roxboro's boundary and the 4,743 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~236-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Roxboro's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Roxboro checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Roxboro's 4,743 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Person County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Person 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 Person County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Roxboro's 4,743 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Roxboro you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,743 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 Roxboro-wide figureread your own land →
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