One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

One way of estimating when it's a good idea to plant pentas is to refer to the USDA zone info for Oxford.

Planting Calendar for Pentas

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

It's probably a bad idea to plant pentas until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant pentas in Oxford 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 pentas and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your pentas may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your pentas indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Oxford may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Oxford you get surprised by a frost after March 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your pentas in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Oxford

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 Oxford

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