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.

The USDA zone info for Hays should be reviewed to figure out when to plant trailing portulaca.

Planting Calendar for Trailing Portulaca

Frost tolerance for trailing portulaca:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

Since trailing portulaca do not do well in cold weather you have to wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant trailing portulaca in Hays 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 trailing portulaca and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your trailing portulaca may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your trailing portulaca indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Hays. You can expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Hays is not always accurate the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Hays you get a frost after April 15 so always be ready to cover your trailing portulaca if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Hays

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 Hays

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