One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

One way of determining when it's a good idea to plant pennisetum is to look at the USDA zone info for Gypsum.

Planting Calendar for Pennisetum

Frost tolerance for pennisetum:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Pennisetum tend to make it in some cold which means that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

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

Last Frost Date

In Gypsum the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You can expect an average low temperature of -20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Gypsum is an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Gypsum you get a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your pennisetum if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Gypsum

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°F

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

Plants to Grow in Gypsum

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