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.

It's possible to determine when it's the best time to plant chives by reviewing the USDA zone info for Jacksonville.

Planting Calendar for Chives

Frost tolerance for chives:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Since chives are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather you can plant them earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant chives in Jacksonville 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 chives and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your chives may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your chives indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Jacksonville. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -10°F.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Jacksonville is an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Jacksonville it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your chives in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Jacksonville

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 Jacksonville

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