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 Franklin should be reffered to in order to estimate when to plant lithospermum.

Planting Calendar for Lithospermum

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

It's a bad idea to plant lithospermum until after the last frost because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant lithospermum in Franklin 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 lithospermum and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your lithospermum may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your lithospermum indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on February 15 in Franklin. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 20°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Franklin is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Franklin there is a last frost after February 15 be ready to cover your lithospermum if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Franklin

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	20°F
Highest Expected Low	25°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 25°F.

Plants to Grow in Franklin

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