One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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 figuring out when you can plant ornamental grasses is to examine the USDA zone info for Charlotte.

Planting Calendar for Ornamental Grasses

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

Since ornamental grasses do ok in moderate cold you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant ornamental grasses in Charlotte 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 ornamental grasses and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your ornamental grasses may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your ornamental grasses indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on March 15 in Charlotte. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 10°F.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Charlotte is just an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Charlotte it frosts late in the year after March 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your ornamental grasses in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Charlotte

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Charlotte

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