Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to determine your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The first opportunity to plant schizanthus in Charleston should be figured out by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Schizanthus

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

It's probably not a good idea to plant schizanthus until after all chance of frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant schizanthus in Charleston is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant schizanthus and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your schizanthus may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your schizanthus indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Charleston. You should expect an average low temperature of 20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Charleston is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Charleston it frosts late in the year after February 15 be ready to cover your schizanthus in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Charleston

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	20°F
Highest Expected Low	25°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 25°F.

Plants to Grow in Charleston

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