One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

A common way of figuring out when it's a good idea to plant cleome is to check out the USDA zone info for Hammond.

Planting Calendar for Cleome

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

Since cleome do not do well in cold weather you really should wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant cleome in Hammond 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 cleome and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your cleome may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your cleome indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Hammond the average date of last frost happens on March 15. You can expect an average low temperature of 15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Hammond is not always accurate the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Hammond you get a frost after March 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your cleome in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Hammond

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°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 20°F.

Plants to Grow in Hammond

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