Wild Rose, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Wild Rose, 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 Wild Rose 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 Wild Rose — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wild Rose — the short answer
Wild Rose, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 168 days between hard freezes, across 931 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~168
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 931 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 5a is Wild Rose's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wild Rose's 168-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wild Rose
Each reading below is measured for Wild Rose itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWild Rose runs about 168 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredWild Rose sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Wild Rose is in
Wild Rose sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wild Rose's own centroid rather than borrowed from Waushara County.
What Grows in Wild Rose
Every plant below cleared Wild Rose's own zone 5a and its 168-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wild Rose?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Wild Rose
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wild Rose. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WILD ROSE SCHOOL BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- COLLIGAN MOTORS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- LAMBSCROFT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Ross Caves & Son IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- NORMAN HOEFTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Lauritzen EnterprisesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- LAURITZEN ENTERPRISESBrownfields · 1200 ft
- THEDACARE REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER - WILD ROSEBrownfields · 1700 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #10374Brownfields · 1900 ft
- WA-30/20/11Nitrate · 2100 ft
- A JS AUTO BODYBrownfields · 2100 ft
- Wild Rose C-StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wild Rose'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 Wild Rose.
Total Sites
160
within ~10 miles of Wild Rose
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wild Rose
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wild Rose
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wild Rose, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 109 sites within ~10 miles of Wild Rose. 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 Wild Rose
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 Wild Rose average
Your land is one point inside Wild Rose
Everything above resolves to Wild Rose as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 931 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 Wild Rose Average
Wild Rose Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Wild Rose
- ●One soil character for all of Wild Rose
- ●Frost dates read at Wild Rose's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wild Rose's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wild Rose
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wild Rose, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wild Rose averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wild Rose — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wild Rose average
How we know this about Wild Rose
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 Wild Rose’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 Wild Rose
When does frost risk typically end in Wild Rose?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wild Rose typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Wild Rose?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wild Rose typically arrives around Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 28, so the watching starts about Sep 12 — about 168 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wild Rose?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wild Rose sees about 168 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Sep 28, about 133 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wild Rose?
The federal record around Wild Rose shows 160 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (109), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Wild Rose?
From about Sep 12 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 Oct 12 (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 Oct 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wild Rose's scale — its 5a band and its 168-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wild Rose'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 Wild Rose’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wild Rose's own scale — its own ~168-day season between 28°F freezes, the 931 acres it covers and 160 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wild Rose's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wild Rose's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 12 and the ~168-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 160 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wild Rose, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wild Rose's boundary and the 931 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~168-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wild Rose's own centroid, the North Central Hardwood ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wild Rose's 931 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Waushara County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Waushara County
- The growing challenges every Wisconsin grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Wisconsin
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Waushara County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wild Rose's 931 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wild Rose you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 931 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 Wild Rose-wide figureread your own land →