When to Plant Cuphea in Shippensburg, PA

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.

It's a good idea to determine when to plant cuphea by checking out the USDA zone info for Shippensburg.


Planting Calendar for Cuphea

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

Cuphea are not cold tolerant which means that it is necessary to wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant cuphea
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant cuphea
Probably not a good time to plant cuphea

The earliest that you can plant cuphea in Shippensburg 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 cuphea and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your cuphea may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your cuphea indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Shippensburg. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -5°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Shippensburg is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Shippensburg last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your cuphea if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Shippensburg

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-5°F
Highest Expected Low0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Shippensburg

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