Rogue River, Oregon, 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.
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 Rogue River, 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 Rogue River 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 Rogue River — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Rogue River — the short answer
Rogue River, Oregon: USDA zone 8b, about 251 days between hard freezes, across 625 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~251
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 625 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 8b is Rogue River's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rogue River's 251-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rogue River
Each reading below is measured for Rogue River itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRogue River runs about 251 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
MeasuredRogue River 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 Rogue River is in
Rogue River sits in the Klamath Mountains/California High North Coast Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Rogue River's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jackson County.
What Grows in Rogue River
Every plant below cleared Rogue River's own zone 8b and its 251-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rogue River?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Rogue River
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rogue River. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LARRY'S TRIANGLE SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- ROGUE RIVER CHEVRON CIRCLE KUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- ROGUE RIVER 76Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- ROGUE RIVER EXXON #9316Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- ROGUE RIVER C O - 010245Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- LIL' PANTRY, LLC - ROGUE RIVERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- STAR COLLISION CENTERBrownfields · 1700 ft
- RADIO DESIGN GROUPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- RODMAN, TOM J & BILLIE IUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- 36S/04W-16DCB1Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- ROGUE RIVER DIVISIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Molybdenum ProspectMining · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rogue River'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 Rogue River.
Total Sites
339
within ~10 miles of Rogue River
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rogue River
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rogue River
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rogue River, Mining runs higher than the national average — 80 sites within ~10 miles of Rogue River. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Rogue River
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 Rogue River average
Your land is one point inside Rogue River
Everything above resolves to Rogue River as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 625 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 Rogue River Average
Rogue River Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Rogue River
- ●One soil character for all of Rogue River
- ●Frost dates read at Rogue River's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rogue River's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rogue River
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rogue River, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rogue River averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rogue River — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rogue River average
How we know this about Rogue River
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 Rogue River’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 Rogue River
When does frost risk typically end in Rogue River?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rogue River typically lands around Mar 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 Mar 30.
When is the first frost in Rogue River?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rogue River typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 251 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rogue River?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rogue River sees about 251 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 1, about 216 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rogue River?
The federal record around Rogue River runs heavier than most — 339 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (150), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Rogue River?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rogue River's scale — its 8b band and its 251-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rogue River'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 Rogue River’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rogue River's own scale — its own ~251-day season between 28°F freezes, the 625 acres it covers and 339 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rogue River's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rogue River's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 9 and Nov 15 and the ~251-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 339 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rogue River, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rogue River's boundary and the 625 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~251-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rogue River's own centroid, the Klamath Mountains/California High North Coast RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rogue River's 625 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jackson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jackson County
- The growing challenges every Oregon grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Oregon
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Jackson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rogue River's 625 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rogue River you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 625 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 Rogue River-wide figureread your own land →
More in Oregon
Growing region
Nearby growing guides