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.

A common way of estimating when to plant coleus is to look at the USDA zone info for Hampshire.

Planting Calendar for Coleus

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

Coleus do not do well in cold weather which means that you need to wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant coleus in Hampshire 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 coleus and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your coleus may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your coleus indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Hampshire. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Always keep in mind that the actual date of last frost may not be accurate from year to year because it is based on the USDA zone info for Hampshire and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Hampshire you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your coleus if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Hampshire

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

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

Plants to Grow in Hampshire

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