One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the 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.

A common way of determining when it's the best time to plant pentas is to look at the USDA zone info for Piedmont.

Planting Calendar for Pentas

Frost tolerance for pentas:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

Since pentas do not do well in cold weather you need to wait until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant pentas in Piedmont 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 pentas and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your pentas may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your pentas indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on January 31 in Piedmont. You can expect an average low temperature of 30°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Piedmont 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 Piedmont there is a last frost after January 31 so always be ready to protect your pentas if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Piedmont

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	30°F
Highest Expected Low	35°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 30°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 35°F.

Plants to Grow in Piedmont

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