One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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.

The USDA zone info for Happy Valley can be read to determine when it's the best time to plant centaurea.

Planting Calendar for Centaurea

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

Centaurea are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather which tells us that you can get them planted earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant centaurea in Happy Valley 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 centaurea and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your centaurea may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your centaurea indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on March 15 in Happy Valley. It might get as low as 15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Happy Valley and it is different every year. Since half of the time in Happy Valley it frosts late in the year after March 15 be ready to cover your centaurea if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Happy Valley

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 20°F.

Plants to Grow in Happy Valley

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Happy Valley.