One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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 Austin you can estimate when it's possible to plant maltese cross by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Maltese Cross

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

Since maltese cross do well in moderate cold you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant maltese cross in Austin 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 maltese cross and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your maltese cross may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your maltese cross indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Austin the average date of last frost happens on May 15. You can expect an average low temperature of -25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Austin is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Austin last frost occurs after May 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your maltese cross in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Austin

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-25°F
Highest Expected Low	-20°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 -20°F.

Plants to Grow in Austin

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