One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Rye can be looked at to estimate when it's a good idea to plant sunflowers.

Planting Calendar for Sunflowers

Frost tolerance for sunflowers:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

Sunflowers do not do well in cold weather which tells us that you really should wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant sunflowers in Rye 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 sunflowers and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your sunflowers may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your sunflowers indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Rye is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Rye it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your sunflowers in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Rye

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 Rye

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