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.

The USDA zone info for Douglas should be looked at to figure out when it's a good idea to plant cuphea.

Planting Calendar for Cuphea

Frost tolerance for cuphea:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

It's probably not a good idea to plant cuphea until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant cuphea in Douglas 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 cuphea and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your cuphea may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your cuphea 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 March 15 in Douglas. It might get as low as 10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Douglas may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Douglas you get surprised by a frost after March 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your cuphea in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Douglas

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 Douglas

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