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

A way of determining when to plant diascia is to examine the USDA zone info for Sandy.

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 some cold which tells us that you can plant them a little earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant diascia in Sandy 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your diascia may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your diascia indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Sandy the average date of last frost happens on March 15. It might get as low as 15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Sandy and it will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Sandy there is a last frost after March 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your diascia in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Sandy

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 Sandy

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