One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of determining when to plant dracaena is to look at the USDA zone info for Portland.

Planting Calendar for Dracaena

Frost tolerance for dracaena:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Dracaena are very cold tolerant which means that you can plant them much earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant dracaena in Portland is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant dracaena and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your dracaena may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your dracaena indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Portland is an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Portland it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your dracaena in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Portland

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-15°F
Highest Expected Low	-10°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 -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Portland

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