One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of making a decision about when you can plant polka dot plant is to look at the USDA zone info for Hempstead.

Planting Calendar for Polka Dot Plant

Frost tolerance for polka dot plant:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

It's not a good idea to plant polka dot plant until after the last frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant polka dot plant in Hempstead is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant polka dot plant and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your polka dot plant may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your polka dot plant indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Hempstead. You should expect an average low temperature of 5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Hempstead is not always accurate the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Hempstead last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your polka dot plant in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Hempstead

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	5°F
Highest Expected Low	10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 10°F.

Plants to Grow in Hempstead

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