One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

You should be able to figure out when it's a good idea to plant diascia by looking at the USDA zone info for De Soto.

Planting Calendar for Diascia

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

Since diascia are moderately cold tolerant you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant diascia in De Soto 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 diascia and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your diascia may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your diascia indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in De Soto. You can expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for De Soto is not always accurate the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in De Soto you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your diascia in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for De Soto

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-10°F
Highest Expected Low	-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in De Soto

You may be interested in your other planting guides for De Soto.