One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Richmond can be reffered to in order to estimate when it's the best time to plant dracaena.

Planting Calendar for Dracaena

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

Dracaena do well in cold weather which means that you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant dracaena in Richmond 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 dracaena and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your dracaena may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your dracaena indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Richmond the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You should expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Richmond is just an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Richmond last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your dracaena if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Richmond

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 Richmond

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