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.

You should be able to estimate when it's a good idea to plant coleus by using the USDA zone info for Hickory.

Planting Calendar for Coleus

Frost tolerance for coleus:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

It's a bad idea to plant coleus until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they require warm weather.

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

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Hickory. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 5°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Hickory is not always accurate the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Hickory you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your coleus if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Hickory

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 Hickory

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