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.

One way of determining when you can plant oenothera is to check out the USDA zone info for New Castle.

Planting Calendar for Oenothera

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

Oenothera are moderately cold tolerant which means that you can start planting them earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant oenothera in New Castle 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 oenothera and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your oenothera may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your oenothera indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in New Castle. You can expect an average low temperature of 0°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for New Castle is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in New Castle there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to cover your oenothera in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for New Castle

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	0°F
Highest Expected Low	5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 0°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 5°F.

Plants to Grow in New Castle

You may be interested in your other planting guides for New Castle.