One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

You will be able to figure out when it's the best time to plant sunflowers by referring to the USDA zone info for Ruston.

Planting Calendar for Sunflowers

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

Since sunflowers do not do well in cold weather you have to wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant sunflowers in Ruston 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 sunflowers and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your sunflowers may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your sunflowers indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Ruston the average date of last frost happens on March 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Ruston is not always accurate the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Ruston there is a last frost after March 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your sunflowers if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Ruston

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Ruston

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