One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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 Fairfax can be reffered to in order to determine when it's a good idea to plant cleome.

Planting Calendar for Cleome

Frost tolerance for cleome:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

You can not plant cleome until after the last frost has passed because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant cleome in Fairfax is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant cleome and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your cleome may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your cleome indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Fairfax. You can expect an average low temperature of 25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Fairfax is an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Fairfax last frost occurs after February 15 be ready to protect your cleome in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Fairfax

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	25°F
Highest Expected Low	30°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 30°F.

Plants to Grow in Fairfax

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