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.

The first opportunity to plant verbena in Portland can be determined by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Verbena

Frost tolerance for verbena:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Verbena tend to make it in a tiny bit of cold which means that you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

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

The last month that you can plant verbena and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your verbena may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your verbena indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Remember that USDA zone info for Portland may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Portland last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your verbena in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Portland

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 Portland

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