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.

By reviewing the USDA zone info for Forest City it's a good idea to estimate when to plant tithonia.

Planting Calendar for Tithonia

Frost tolerance for tithonia:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

It's a bad idea to plant tithonia until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant tithonia in Forest City 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 tithonia and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your tithonia may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your tithonia indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Forest City. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 5°F.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost may not be accurate from year to year because it is based on the USDA zone info for Forest City and it changes from year to year. Half of the time in Forest City you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your tithonia in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Forest City

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 Forest City

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Forest City.