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 making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant pincushion flower is to check out the USDA zone info for Swarthmore.

Planting Calendar for Pincushion Flower

Frost tolerance for pincushion flower:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

You can plant pincushion flower a bit earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant pincushion flower in Swarthmore is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant pincushion flower and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your pincushion flower may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your pincushion flower indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Swarthmore the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 0°F.

Remember that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for Swarthmore and it changes from year to year. Half of the time in Swarthmore it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your pincushion flower in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Swarthmore

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 Swarthmore

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