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.

A common way of estimating when you can plant dracaena is to consult the USDA zone info for Portland.

Planting Calendar for Dracaena

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

Dracaena are very cold tolerant which tells us that you can get them planted much earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant dracaena in Portland 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 dracaena and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your dracaena may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your dracaena indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Portland. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Portland is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Portland you get a frost after March 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your dracaena if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Portland

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 Portland

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