Roanoke, Virginia, 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.
These conditions suit cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Roanoke, 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 Roanoke 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 Roanoke — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Roanoke — the short answer
Roanoke, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 237 days between hard freezes, across 27K 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 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~237
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 27K 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 Roanoke's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Roanoke's 237-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Roanoke
Each reading below is measured for Roanoke itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRoanoke runs about 237 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
MeasuredRoanoke 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 Roanoke is in
Roanoke sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Roanoke's own centroid rather than borrowed from Roanoke city.
What Grows in Roanoke
Every plant below cleared Roanoke's own zone 7b and its 237-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Roanoke?
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 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 14 — 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 Roanoke
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Roanoke, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Roanoke
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Roanoke. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FIRE STATION #5Underground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- PMI Lubricants / K-Sales IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- NOLAND COUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- Kleen Uniform RentalUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- WEDDLE PLUMBING & HEATING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- SAFESIDE RANGE & TRAINING, LLCBrownfields · 450 ft
- RENT-ALLS OF ROANOKE, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- MCILHANY EQUIPMENT COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- MCILHANY EQUIPMENT CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BRUGHS AUTO PAINT AND BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1500 ft
- CLARENCE E GILESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- F L Hatcher and Son IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Roanoke'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 Roanoke.
Total Sites
1,500
within ~10 miles of Roanoke
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Roanoke
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Roanoke
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.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Roanoke
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 Roanoke average
Your land is one point inside Roanoke
Everything above resolves to Roanoke as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 27K 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 Roanoke Average
Roanoke Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Roanoke
- ●One soil character for all of Roanoke
- ●Frost dates read at Roanoke's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Roanoke's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Roanoke
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Roanoke, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Roanoke averages can't show:
We read public map data around Roanoke — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Roanoke average
How we know this about Roanoke
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 Roanoke’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 Roanoke
When does frost risk typically end in Roanoke?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Roanoke 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 Roanoke?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Roanoke typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 237 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Roanoke?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Roanoke sees about 237 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Oct 31, about 202 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Roanoke?
The federal record around Roanoke is a meaningful one — 1,500 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (912), 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 Roanoke?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Roanoke's scale — its 7b band and its 237-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Roanoke'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 Roanoke’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Roanoke's own scale — its own ~237-day season between 28°F freezes, the 27,213 acres it covers and 1,500 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Roanoke's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Roanoke's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 14 and the ~237-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,500 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Roanoke, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Roanoke's boundary and the 27,213 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~237-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Roanoke's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Roanokelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Roanoke's 27,213 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Roanoke County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Roanoke County
- The growing challenges every Virginia grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Virginia
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Roanoke County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Roanoke's 27,213 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Roanoke you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 27,213 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 Roanoke-wide figureread your own land →
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