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.

You can determine when it's a good idea to plant rudbeckia in Newport by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Rudbeckia

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

You can plant rudbeckia just a bit earlier in the year because they are moderately cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant rudbeckia in Newport 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 rudbeckia and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your rudbeckia may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your rudbeckia indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Newport. It might get as low as 5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Newport is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Newport you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your rudbeckia in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Newport

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 Newport

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