The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine 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 making a decision about when it's possible to plant pennisetum is to use the USDA zone info for Chatham.

Planting Calendar for Pennisetum

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

Pennisetum are barely cold tolerant which tells us that you can plant them slightly earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant pennisetum in Chatham 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 pennisetum and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your pennisetum may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your pennisetum indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Chatham. You can expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Chatham is an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Chatham you get a frost after April 15 so always be ready to protect your pennisetum in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Chatham

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°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 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Chatham

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