Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to determine your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

In Austin you can determine when it's the best time to plant phlox by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Phlox

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

Phlox do well in mild cold which means that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant phlox 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 phlox and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your phlox may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your phlox indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on May 15 in Austin. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -25°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Austin is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Austin last frost occurs after May 15 be ready to protect your phlox 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.