One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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 determining when to plant digitalis is to refer to the USDA zone info for Charleston.

Planting Calendar for Digitalis

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

Since digitalis do well in moderate cold you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant digitalis in Charleston is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant digitalis and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your digitalis may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your digitalis indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Charleston. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -10°F.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Charleston is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Charleston last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your digitalis if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Charleston

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-10°F
Highest Expected Low	-5°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 -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Charleston

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