One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out 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.

The USDA zone info for Piedmont can be used to figure out when to plant nigella.

Planting Calendar for Nigella

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

You can plant nigella much earlier in the year because they do well in cold.

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Piedmont. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 0°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Piedmont is an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Piedmont it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your nigella if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Piedmont

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 Piedmont

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