One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Lancaster should be reffered to in order to figure out when to plant schizanthus.

Planting Calendar for Schizanthus

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

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

The earliest that you can plant schizanthus in Lancaster 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 schizanthus and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your schizanthus may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your schizanthus indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on March 15 in Lancaster. It might get as low as 15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Lancaster is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Lancaster last frost occurs after March 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your schizanthus in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Lancaster

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 20°F.

Plants to Grow in Lancaster

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