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.

It's possible to estimate when it's a good idea to plant strawflowers by reviewing the USDA zone info for Dover.

Planting Calendar for Strawflowers

Frost tolerance for strawflowers:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Strawflowers do ok in moderate cold which tells us that you can start planting them slightly earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant strawflowers in Dover is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant strawflowers and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your strawflowers may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your strawflowers indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Dover. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Dover is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Dover there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to cover your strawflowers in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Dover

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-15°F
Highest Expected Low	-10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Dover

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