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.

It's possible to figure out when it's the best time to plant centaurea by using the USDA zone info for Winston-Salem.

Planting Calendar for Centaurea

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

Centaurea are moderately cold tolerant which tells us that you can start planting them earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant centaurea in Winston-Salem 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 centaurea and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your centaurea may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your centaurea indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Winston-Salem. You can expect an average low temperature of 5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Winston-Salem may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Winston-Salem you get a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your centaurea in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Winston-Salem

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 Winston-Salem

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Winston-Salem.