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.

In Sweet Home you can determine when it's a good idea to plant catharanthus by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Catharanthus

Frost tolerance for catharanthus:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

Catharanthus require warm weather which means that it is important to wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant catharanthus in Sweet Home is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant catharanthus and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your catharanthus may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your catharanthus indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Remember that USDA zone info for Sweet Home is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Sweet Home there is a last frost after March 15 be ready to protect your catharanthus in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Sweet Home

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 Sweet Home

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Sweet Home.