One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of figuring out when it's a good idea to plant calliopsis is to refer to the USDA zone info for Calera.

Planting Calendar for Calliopsis

Frost tolerance for calliopsis:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

You really shouldn't plant calliopsis until after the last frost because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant calliopsis in Calera 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 calliopsis and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your calliopsis may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your calliopsis indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Calera. It might get as low as 10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Calera may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Calera you get a frost after March 15 be ready to cover your calliopsis if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Calera

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Calera

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