One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate 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 figure out when you can plant iresene by referring to the USDA zone info for Raleigh.

Planting Calendar for Iresene

Frost tolerance for iresene:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

Since iresene are not cold tolerant 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 iresene 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 iresene and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your iresene may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your iresene indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Raleigh. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 5°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Raleigh is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Raleigh there is a last frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your iresene if you have a late frost.

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.