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.

A common way of estimating when it's a good idea to plant cuphea is to refer to the USDA zone info for Cochran.

Planting Calendar for Cuphea

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

Since cuphea do not do well in cold weather it's necessary to wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant cuphea in Cochran is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant cuphea and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait 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

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Cochran. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Cochran is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Cochran you get a frost after March 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your cuphea in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Cochran

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Cochran

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