One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the 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 Richmond should be used to estimate when to plant erysimum.

Planting Calendar for Erysimum

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

Since erysimum do well in moderate cold you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant erysimum in Richmond is January. However, you really should wait until February if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant erysimum and expect a good harvest is probably October. Any later than that and your erysimum may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your erysimum 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 January 31 in Richmond. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 30°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Richmond is an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Richmond it frosts late in the year after January 31 be ready to protect your erysimum in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Richmond

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 Richmond

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