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 estimating when it's a good idea to plant saxifraga is to use the USDA zone info for Cary.

Planting Calendar for Saxifraga

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

Saxifraga do well in a tiny bit of cold which means that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant saxifraga in Cary 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 saxifraga and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your saxifraga may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your saxifraga indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Cary the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You should expect an average low temperature of 5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Cary is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Cary last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your saxifraga if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Cary

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 Cary

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