Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant catharanthus is to look at the USDA zone info for Mount Sterling.

Planting Calendar for Catharanthus

Frost tolerance for catharanthus:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

You can not plant catharanthus until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant catharanthus in Mount Sterling 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 catharanthus and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your catharanthus may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your catharanthus indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Mount Sterling. It might get as low as -5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Mount Sterling is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Mount Sterling it frosts late in the year after April 15 so always be ready to cover your catharanthus if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Mount Sterling

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Mount Sterling

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Mount Sterling.