When to Plant Sunflowers in Fayetteville, NC

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate 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.

It's a good idea to estimate when you can plant sunflowers by referring to the USDA zone info for Fayetteville.


Planting Calendar for Sunflowers

Frost tolerance for sunflowers: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After the last frost.

You really shouldn't plant sunflowers until after the last frost because they do not do well in cold weather.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant sunflowers
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant sunflowers
Probably not a good time to plant sunflowers

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

The last month that you can plant sunflowers and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your sunflowers may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your sunflowers indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on March 15 in Fayetteville. It might get as low as 10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Fayetteville 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 Fayetteville there is a last frost after March 15 be ready to protect your sunflowers in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Fayetteville

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 Low10°F
Highest Expected Low15°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 Fayetteville

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