Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The first opportunity to plant cuphea in Portsmouth should be figured out by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Cuphea

Frost tolerance for cuphea:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

It's probably a bad idea to plant cuphea until after the last frost because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant cuphea in Portsmouth 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 cuphea and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your cuphea may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your cuphea indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Portsmouth. It might get as low as -10°F during the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Portsmouth is just an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Portsmouth you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your cuphea in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Portsmouth

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-10°F
Highest Expected Low	-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Portsmouth

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