The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The first opportunity to plant calliopsis in Virginia can be figured out by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Calliopsis

Frost tolerance for calliopsis:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

It's probably a bad idea to plant calliopsis until after all chance of frost has passed because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant calliopsis in Virginia is May. However, you really should wait until June if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant calliopsis and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your calliopsis may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your calliopsis indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on May 15 in Virginia. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -35°F.

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for Virginia and it will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Virginia last frost occurs after May 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your calliopsis if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Virginia

Here is the info for USDA Zone 3b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-35°F
Highest Expected Low	-30°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -35°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -30°F.

Plants to Grow in Virginia

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