One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of determining when it's a good idea to plant calendula is to check out the USDA zone info for Albemarle.

Planting Calendar for Calendula

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

Calendula do well in a little bit of cold which means that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant calendula in Albemarle 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 calendula and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your calendula may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your calendula indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Albemarle. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 5°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Albemarle is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Albemarle you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your calendula if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Albemarle

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

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

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

Plants to Grow in Albemarle

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