One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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 first opportunity to plant lavender in Longboat Key should be figured out by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Lavender

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

Lavender do well in a little bit of cold which tells us that you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant lavender in Longboat Key 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 lavender and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your lavender may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your lavender indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on January 31 in Longboat Key. You should expect an average low temperature of 30°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Longboat Key is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Longboat Key you get a frost after January 31 be ready to protect your lavender in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Longboat Key

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 Longboat Key

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Longboat Key.