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.

By referring to the USDA zone info for Austin it's possible to determine when it's the best time to plant alyssum.

Planting Calendar for Alyssum

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

Alyssum are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather which tells us that you can start planting them much earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant alyssum in Austin 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 alyssum and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your alyssum may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your alyssum indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Austin. You should expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Austin and it changes from year to year. Half of the time in Austin it frosts late in the year after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your alyssum if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Austin

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 Austin

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