One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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 making a decision about when to plant sunflowers is to examine the USDA zone info for Statesville.

Planting Calendar for Sunflowers

Frost tolerance for sunflowers:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

Sunflowers are not cold tolerant which means that you must wait until it warms up after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant sunflowers in Statesville 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 sunflowers and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your sunflowers may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your sunflowers indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Statesville the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 5°F.

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost may not be accurate from year to year because it is based on the USDA zone info for Statesville and it is different every year. Since half of the time in Statesville it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your sunflowers if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Statesville

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 Statesville

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