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.

In Chester you can determine when it's possible to plant periwinkles by reviewing the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Periwinkles

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

Periwinkles are not cold tolerant which tells us that you have to wait until it warms up after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant periwinkles in Chester 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 periwinkles and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your periwinkles may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your periwinkles indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Chester. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 5°F.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Chester is just an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Chester you get a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your periwinkles if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Chester

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	5°F
Highest Expected Low	10°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 10°F.

Plants to Grow in Chester

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