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.

By looking at the USDA zone info for Aiken you will be able to figure out when it's a good idea to plant gayfeather.

Planting Calendar for Gayfeather

Frost tolerance for gayfeather:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Gayfeather are very cold tolerant which tells us that you can plant them much earlier than other frost tender plants.

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

Last Frost Date

In Aiken the average date of last frost happens on March 15. You can expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Aiken is just an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Aiken you get a frost after March 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your gayfeather in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Aiken

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°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 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Aiken

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