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.

A way of figuring out when it's a good idea to plant coreopsis is to examine the USDA zone info for Mills River.

Planting Calendar for Coreopsis

Frost tolerance for coreopsis:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

You can plant coreopsis a little bit earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant coreopsis in Mills River is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant coreopsis and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your coreopsis may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your coreopsis indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Mills River the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 0°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Mills River may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Mills River last frost occurs after April 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your coreopsis if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Mills River

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	0°F
Highest Expected Low	5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 0°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 5°F.

Plants to Grow in Mills River

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