Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of figuring out when it's the best time to plant elephant ears is to refer to the USDA zone info for Longwood.

Planting Calendar for Elephant Ears

Frost tolerance for elephant ears:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

It's probably a bad idea to plant elephant ears until after the last frost has passed because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant elephant ears in Longwood is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant elephant ears and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your elephant ears may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your elephant ears indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Longwood. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 25°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Longwood is an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Longwood you get a frost after February 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your elephant ears in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Longwood

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	25°F
Highest Expected Low	30°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 30°F.

Plants to Grow in Longwood

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Longwood.