When to Plant Ornamental Grasses in Jacksonville, FL

One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

The USDA zone info for Jacksonville can be read to estimate when to plant ornamental grasses.


Planting Calendar for Ornamental Grasses

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

Ornamental Grasses are barely cold tolerant which tells us that you can get them planted just a bit earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant ornamental grasses
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant ornamental grasses
Probably not a good time to plant ornamental grasses

The earliest that you can plant ornamental grasses in Jacksonville 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 ornamental grasses and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your ornamental grasses may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your ornamental grasses indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on February 15 in Jacksonville. You can expect an average low temperature of 20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Jacksonville is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Jacksonville last frost occurs after February 15 so always be ready to cover your ornamental grasses if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Jacksonville

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)December 15
Lowest Expected Low20°F
Highest Expected Low25°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 25°F.

Plants to Grow in Jacksonville

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