One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

One way of getting a good idea when to plant hibiscus is to refer to the USDA zone info for Bristol.

Planting Calendar for Hibiscus

Frost tolerance for hibiscus:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

You can not plant hibiscus until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant hibiscus in Bristol 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 hibiscus and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your hibiscus may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your hibiscus indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Bristol is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Bristol you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your hibiscus if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Bristol

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 Bristol

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