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.

One way of making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant cerastium is to refer to the USDA zone info for El Dorado.

Planting Calendar for Cerastium

Frost tolerance for cerastium:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Since cerastium are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant cerastium in El Dorado is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant cerastium and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your cerastium may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your cerastium indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for El Dorado is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in El Dorado you get a frost after March 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your cerastium if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for El Dorado

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 El Dorado

You may be interested in your other planting guides for El Dorado.