One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of making a decision about when you can plant trailing portulaca is to examine the USDA zone info for Hope Mills.

Planting Calendar for Trailing Portulaca

Frost tolerance for trailing portulaca:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

It's probably a bad idea to plant trailing portulaca until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant trailing portulaca in Hope Mills 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 trailing portulaca and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your trailing portulaca may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your trailing portulaca indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Hope Mills the average date of last frost happens on March 15. You should expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Hope Mills is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Hope Mills you get a frost after March 15 be ready to cover your trailing portulaca if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Hope Mills

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 Hope Mills

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Hope Mills.