One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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.

One way of determining when it's the best time to plant catharanthus is to refer to the USDA zone info for Frederick.

Planting Calendar for Catharanthus

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

You can not plant catharanthus until after the last frost because they do not do well in cold weather.

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

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Frederick. You can expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Frederick is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Frederick it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your catharanthus in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Frederick

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 Frederick

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