The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of determining when you can plant cuphea is to look at the USDA zone info for Palmetto.

Planting Calendar for Cuphea

Frost tolerance for cuphea:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

Cuphea do not do well in cold weather which means that you need to wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant cuphea in Palmetto 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 cuphea and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your cuphea may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your cuphea indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on February 15 in Palmetto. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Palmetto is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Palmetto it frosts late in the year after February 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your cuphea if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Palmetto

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	25°F
Highest Expected Low	30°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 30°F.

Plants to Grow in Palmetto

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