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.

By referring to the USDA zone info for Roanoke it's a good idea to estimate when to plant tithonia.

Planting Calendar for Tithonia

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

It's a bad idea to plant tithonia until after all chance of frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant tithonia in Roanoke 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 tithonia and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your tithonia may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your tithonia indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Roanoke. You should expect an average low temperature of 5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Roanoke is not always accurate the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Roanoke you get a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your tithonia if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Roanoke

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 Roanoke

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