When to Plant Creeping Phlox in Tampa, FL

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.

The earliest that you can plant creeping phlox in Tampa can be determined by referring to the USDA zone info.


Planting Calendar for Creeping Phlox

Frost tolerance for creeping phlox: Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant: Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Creeping Phlox are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather which means that you can plant them a quite a bit earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant creeping phlox
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant creeping phlox
Probably not a good time to plant creeping phlox

The earliest that you can plant creeping phlox 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 creeping phlox and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your creeping phlox may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your creeping phlox indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Tampa the average date of last frost happens on February 15. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Tampa is an average and 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 just be sure to be ready to protect your creeping phlox if you have a surprise 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 Low25°F
Highest Expected Low30°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.