The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of determining when it's a good idea to plant oenothera is to look at the USDA zone info for Raleigh.

Planting Calendar for Oenothera

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

Oenothera are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather which means that you can plant them a little bit earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant oenothera in Raleigh 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 oenothera and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your oenothera may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your oenothera indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Raleigh. It might get as low as 5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Raleigh is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Raleigh it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your oenothera 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.