One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out 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.

You can determine when to plant centaurea in Tampa by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Centaurea

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

Centaurea are moderately cold tolerant which tells us that you can start planting them earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant centaurea in Tampa 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 centaurea and expect a good harvest is probably October. Any later than that and your centaurea may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your centaurea indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on February 15 in Tampa. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 25°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Tampa is not always accurate the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Tampa last frost occurs after February 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your centaurea in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Tampa

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 Tampa

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