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 way of estimating when it's a good idea to plant xerianthemum is to look at the USDA zone info for Apex.

Planting Calendar for Xerianthemum

Frost tolerance for xerianthemum:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

You can plant xerianthemum a bit earlier in the year because they are barely cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant xerianthemum in Apex is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

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

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Apex. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 5°F.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Apex and it changes from year to year. Half of the time in Apex it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your xerianthemum in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Apex

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 Apex

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