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.

You will be able to figure out when to plant hollyhocks by looking at the USDA zone info for Lexington.

Planting Calendar for Hollyhocks

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

Hollyhocks do well in moderate cold which means that you can start planting them earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant hollyhocks in Lexington 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 hollyhocks and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your hollyhocks may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your hollyhocks indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on March 15 in Lexington. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Lexington is an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Lexington last frost occurs after March 15 be ready to cover your hollyhocks if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Lexington

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 Lexington

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