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.

One way of determining when you can plant festuca is to use the USDA zone info for Richmond.

Planting Calendar for Festuca

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

Festuca do well in mild cold which tells us that you can plant them a little earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Richmond. You should expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Richmond is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Richmond you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your festuca in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Richmond

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 Richmond

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