One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The first opportunity to plant delphinium in Chapel Hill should be figured out by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Delphinium

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

Delphinium can survive 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 delphinium in Chapel Hill 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 delphinium and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your delphinium may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your delphinium indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Chapel Hill. It might get as low as 5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Chapel Hill is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Chapel Hill you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your delphinium if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Chapel Hill

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 Chapel Hill

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Chapel Hill.