One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

You can figure out when it's the best time to plant pennisetum in Thomson by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Pennisetum

Frost tolerance for pennisetum:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Pennisetum are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather which means that you can start planting them slightly earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant pennisetum in Thomson 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 pennisetum and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your pennisetum may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your pennisetum indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on March 15 in Thomson. You can expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Thomson is not always accurate the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Thomson last frost occurs after March 15 be ready to protect your pennisetum if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Thomson

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 Thomson

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