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 determining when it's a good idea to plant sweet williams is to look at the USDA zone info for Magnolia.

Planting Calendar for Sweet Williams

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

Sweet Williams tend to make it in mild cold which tells us that you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant sweet williams in Magnolia 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 sweet williams and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your sweet williams may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your sweet williams indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on March 15 in Magnolia. It might get as low as 10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Magnolia is an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Magnolia there is a last frost after March 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your sweet williams in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Magnolia

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 Magnolia

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