One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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.

One way of making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant cuphea is to use the USDA zone info for Valdosta.

Planting Calendar for Cuphea

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

Since cuphea are not cold tolerant it's necessary to wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant cuphea in Valdosta 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 grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your cuphea indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on March 15 in Valdosta. You should expect an average low temperature of 15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Valdosta may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Valdosta last frost occurs after March 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your cuphea if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Valdosta

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 20°F.

Plants to Grow in Valdosta

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