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 common way of figuring out when it's a good idea to plant portulaca is to refer to the USDA zone info for Scottdale.

Planting Calendar for Portulaca

Frost tolerance for portulaca:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

Since portulaca do not do well in cold weather it's necessary to wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant portulaca in Scottdale 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 portulaca and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your portulaca may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your portulaca indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Scottdale. It might get as low as -10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for Scottdale and it is different every year. Since half of the time in Scottdale you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your portulaca in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Scottdale

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-10°F
Highest Expected Low	-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Scottdale

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