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 way of figuring out when it's the best time to plant pennisetum is to examine the USDA zone info for Montevallo.

Planting Calendar for Pennisetum

Frost tolerance for pennisetum:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Since pennisetum do ok in moderate cold you can plant them just a tiny bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant pennisetum in Montevallo 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 pennisetum and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your pennisetum may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your pennisetum indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on March 15 in Montevallo. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Montevallo is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Montevallo there is a last frost after March 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your pennisetum in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Montevallo

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 Montevallo

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