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.

One way of determining when to plant aurinia is to use the USDA zone info for Portales.

Planting Calendar for Aurinia

Frost tolerance for aurinia:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

You can plant aurinia quite a bit earlier in the year because they do well in cold.

The earliest that you can plant aurinia in Portales 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 aurinia and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your aurinia may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your aurinia indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Portales. You should expect an average low temperature of 0°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Portales is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Portales there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your aurinia if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Portales

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7a.

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

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 0°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 5°F.

Plants to Grow in Portales

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