One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

A common way of figuring out when it's possible to plant oenothera is to use the USDA zone info for Starkville.

Planting Calendar for Oenothera

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

Oenothera do ok in mild cold which tells us that you can plant them a little earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant oenothera in Starkville 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 oenothera and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your oenothera may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your oenothera indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on March 15 in Starkville. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 10°F.

Remember that USDA zone info for Starkville is just an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Starkville last frost occurs after March 15 be ready to protect your oenothera in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Starkville

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°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 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Starkville

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