One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

In Shelby you can figure out when it's a good idea to plant diascia by reviewing the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Diascia

Frost tolerance for diascia:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Diascia do ok in moderate cold which tells us that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant diascia in Shelby 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 diascia and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your diascia may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your diascia indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Shelby. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Shelby is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Shelby you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your diascia if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Shelby

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 Shelby

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