One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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 common way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant strawflowers is to refer to the USDA zone info for Rainbow City.

Planting Calendar for Strawflowers

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

Since strawflowers are barely cold tolerant you can plant them just a tiny bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant strawflowers in Rainbow City 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 strawflowers and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your strawflowers may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your strawflowers indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Rainbow City the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You can expect an average low temperature of 5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Rainbow City is an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Rainbow City it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your strawflowers if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Rainbow City

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 Rainbow City

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Rainbow City.