Rose City, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rose City, 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 Rose City 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 Rose City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rose City — the short answer
Rose City, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 312 days between hard freezes, across 970 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 30
- Orange County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 8
- Orange County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~312
- Orange County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 970 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 Orange County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Rose City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rose City's 312-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rose City
Each reading below is measured for Rose City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsRose City runs about 312 days between hard freezes (read from Orange County, the closest normal to Rose City) — 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
MeasuredRose City sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b.
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 Rose City is in
Rose City sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Rose City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Orange County.
What Grows in Rose City
Every plant below cleared Rose City's own zone 9b and its 312-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rose City?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 8 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Rose City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rose City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ACTION OIL SERVICESBrownfields · 550 ft
- UJ-61-64-207Nitrate · 1900 ft
- FRANKS FLOWER EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- MOTOR SPORTSBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- AUTOMOTIVE & PERFORMANCE SVCSBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- MCX TRANSPORT OF TEXAS INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- F A S TBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- GATEWAY TRAVEL PLAZAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- JORDAN MARINE & PRO GUELBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- APAC-TEXAS INC ROSE CITY ASPHALT PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 1.9 mi
- FASTLANE NO 14Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- STEPHENSON STEELUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rose City'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 Rose City.
Total Sites
1,311
within ~10 miles of Rose City
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rose City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rose City
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Rose City
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 Rose City average
Your land is one point inside Rose City
Everything above resolves to Rose City as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 970 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Orange County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 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 Rose City Average
Rose City Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Rose City
- ●One soil character for all of Rose City
- ●Frost dates read at Rose City's scale: Jan 30 to Dec 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rose City's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rose City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rose City, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rose City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rose City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rose City average
How we know this about Rose City
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 Orange 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 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 Rose City
When does frost risk typically end in Rose City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rose City typically lands around Jan 30, 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 Feb 20.
When is the first frost in Rose City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rose City typically arrives around Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 24, so the watching starts about Nov 8 — about 312 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rose City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rose City sees about 312 frost-free days — roughly Jan 30 through Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 20 to Nov 24, about 277 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rose City?
The federal record around Rose City is a meaningful one — 1,311 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (782), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Rose City?
From about Nov 8 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 Dec 8 (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 Dec 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rose City's scale — its 9b band and its 312-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rose City'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 Rose City’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Rose City's own scale — the 970 acres it covers and 1,311 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rose City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,311 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rose City, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rose City's boundary and the 970 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~312-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rose City's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Rose City has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Orange County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rose City's 970 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Orange County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Orange County
- The growing challenges every Texas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Texas
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Orange County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rose City's 970 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rose City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 970 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Rose City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasRose City sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides