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

The USDA zone info for Shenandoah can be looked at to determine when it's a good idea to plant cleome.

Planting Calendar for Cleome

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

Since cleome require warm weather it is important to wait until after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant cleome in Shenandoah 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 cleome and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your cleome may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your cleome indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Shenandoah. You should expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Shenandoah is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Shenandoah you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your cleome in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Shenandoah

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 Shenandoah

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