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.

In Charlotte you can figure out when it's the best time to plant roses by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Roses

Frost tolerance for roses:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Roses do ok in moderate cold which means that you can plant them a little earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

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

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Charlotte. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Charlotte is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Charlotte last frost occurs after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your roses in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Charlotte

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 Charlotte

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