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.

The first opportunity to plant cuphea in Raleigh can be determined by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Cuphea

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

Since cuphea do not do well in cold weather you have to wait until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant cuphea in Raleigh 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 cuphea and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your cuphea may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your cuphea indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Raleigh the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as 5°F during the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Raleigh is an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Raleigh last frost occurs after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your cuphea if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Raleigh

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 Raleigh

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