One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The best time to plant fuchsia in New Orleans should be estimated by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Fuchsia

Frost tolerance for fuchsia:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

It's probably not a good idea to plant fuchsia until after the last frost because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant fuchsia in New Orleans 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 fuchsia and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your fuchsia may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your fuchsia 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 February 15 in New Orleans. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for New Orleans is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in New Orleans last frost occurs after February 15 be ready to protect your fuchsia if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for New Orleans

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	25°F
Highest Expected Low	30°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 30°F.

Plants to Grow in New Orleans

You may be interested in your other planting guides for New Orleans.