One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

The USDA zone info for New Bern can be looked at to estimate when it's a good idea to plant cosmos.

Planting Calendar for Cosmos

Frost tolerance for cosmos:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Cosmos tend to make it in mild cold which tells us that you can plant them just a tiny bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant cosmos in New Bern is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant cosmos and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your cosmos may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your cosmos indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for New Bern and it is different every year. Half of the time in New Bern you get surprised by a frost after March 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your cosmos in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for New Bern

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 New Bern

You may be interested in your other planting guides for New Bern.