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.

It's possible to estimate when it's a good idea to plant cosmos by reviewing the USDA zone info for Carrboro.

Planting Calendar for Cosmos

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

You can plant cosmos just a tiny bit earlier in the year because they do ok in moderate cold.

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Carrboro. You can expect an average low temperature of 5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Carrboro is not always accurate the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Carrboro last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your cosmos if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Carrboro

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 Carrboro

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