Rossmore, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Rossmore, 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 Rossmore 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 Rossmore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rossmore — the short answer
Rossmore, West Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 232 days between hard freezes, across 399 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- 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
- ~232
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 399 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 7a is Rossmore's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rossmore's 232-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rossmore
Each reading below is measured for Rossmore itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRossmore runs about 232 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
MeasuredRossmore sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Rossmore is in
Rossmore sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rossmore's own centroid rather than borrowed from Logan County.
What Grows in Rossmore
Every plant below cleared Rossmore's own zone 7a and its 232-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rossmore?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (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. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Rossmore
Survey cells within 31 miles of Rossmore checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 79 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Rossmore
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rossmore. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CONSOLIDATED MOTORSBrownfields · 2200 ft
- MURPHYS SMALL ENGINE REPAIRBrownfields · 2200 ft
- MICCO MACHINEBrownfields · 2200 ft
- CENQUIP INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- SPEEDWAY #9792Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- CENTRAL HYDRAULIC SERVICE SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- ELECTRONIC LABORATORIES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- ROYAL CROWN BOTTLING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- HATFIELD'S MARKET AND DELIUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- SCOTTIES A G MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- PEPSI COLA BOTTLINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- APOLLO MACHINE & MFG INCBrownfields · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rossmore'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 Rossmore.
Total Sites
252
within ~10 miles of Rossmore
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rossmore
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rossmore
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rossmore, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 169 sites within ~10 miles of Rossmore. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Rossmore
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 Rossmore average
Your land is one point inside Rossmore
Everything above resolves to Rossmore as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 399 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 town 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 Rossmore Average
Rossmore Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Rossmore
- ●One soil character for all of Rossmore
- ●Frost dates read at Rossmore's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rossmore's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rossmore
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rossmore, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rossmore averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rossmore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rossmore average
How we know this about Rossmore
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Rossmore’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Rossmore
When does frost risk typically end in Rossmore?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rossmore typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Rossmore?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rossmore 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 232 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rossmore?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rossmore sees about 232 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 30, about 197 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rossmore?
The federal record around Rossmore is a meaningful one — 252 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (169), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Rossmore?
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 Rossmore's scale — its 7a band and its 232-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rossmore'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 Rossmore’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Rossmore's own scale — its own ~232-day season between 28°F freezes, the 399 acres it covers and 252 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rossmore's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rossmore's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 13 and the ~232-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 252 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rossmore, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rossmore's boundary and the 399 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~232-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rossmore's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Rossmore 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 Rossmore's 399 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Logan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Logan County
- The growing challenges every West Virginia grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom West Virginia
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Logan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rossmore's 399 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rossmore you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 399 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Rossmore-wide figureread your own land →
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