Wildrose, North Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, epazote, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Wildrose, 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 Wildrose 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 Wildrose — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wildrose — the short answer
Wildrose, North Dakota: USDA zone 3b, about 142 days between hard freezes, across 186 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 3b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~142
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 186 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 3b is Wildrose's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wildrose's 142-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wildrose
Each reading below is measured for Wildrose itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWildrose runs about 142 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredWildrose sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b.
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 Wildrose is in
Wildrose sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Wildrose's own centroid rather than borrowed from Williams County.
What Grows in Wildrose
Every plant below cleared Wildrose's own zone 3b and its 142-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wildrose?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Wildrose
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wildrose. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Horizon ResourcesUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- Vaage Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- 159-097-02BAANitrate · 1500 ft
- 160-097-36BCBNitrate · 1.2 mi
- 160-097-32DAANitrate · 2.4 mi
- 160-097-32DDB1Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- 160-097-13BBBNitrate · 4.3 mi
- 160-096-17CDBNitrate · 4.6 mi
- 159-096-03DDDNitrate · 5.7 mi
- 159-098-10AADNitrate · 6.4 mi
- 160-096-04CCBNitrate · 6.6 mi
- 159-098-10ACDNitrate · 6.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wildrose'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 Wildrose.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wildrose
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wildrose, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 28 sites within ~10 miles of Wildrose. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Wildrose
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 Wildrose average
Your land is one point inside Wildrose
Everything above resolves to Wildrose as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 186 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 Wildrose Average
Wildrose Average
- ●USDA Zones 3b, averaged across Wildrose
- ●One soil character for all of Wildrose
- ●Frost dates read at Wildrose's scale: May 9 to Sep 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wildrose's 3b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wildrose
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wildrose, North Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wildrose averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wildrose — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wildrose average
How we know this about Wildrose
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 Wildrose’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 Wildrose
When does frost risk typically end in Wildrose?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wildrose typically lands around May 9, 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 May 30.
When is the first frost in Wildrose?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wildrose typically arrives around Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 14, so the watching starts about Aug 29 — about 142 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wildrose?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wildrose sees about 142 frost-free days — roughly May 9 through Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 30 to Sep 14, about 107 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wildrose?
The federal record around Wildrose is light — 32 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (28), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Wildrose?
With about 142 frost-free days between hard freezes, Wildrose rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 170 to 198 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 9 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Wildrose's scale — its 3b band and its 142-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wildrose'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 Wildrose’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wildrose's own scale — its own ~142-day season between 28°F freezes, the 186 acres it covers and 32 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wildrose's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wildrose's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 9 and Sep 28 and the ~142-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 32 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wildrose, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wildrose's boundary and the 186 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 3b and a ~142-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wildrose's own centroid, the Northwestern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wildrose's 186 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Williams County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Williams County
- The growing challenges every North Dakota grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom North Dakota
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Williams County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wildrose's 186 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wildrose you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 186 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Wildrose-wide figureread your own land →
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