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.

One way of making a decision about when you can plant flowering maple is to use the USDA zone info for Sumter.

Planting Calendar for Flowering Maple

Frost tolerance for flowering maple:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

Since flowering maple are not cold tolerant you really should wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant flowering maple in Sumter 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 flowering maple and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your flowering maple may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your flowering maple indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on March 15 in Sumter. You can expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that the actual date of last frost may not be accurate from year to year because it is based on the USDA zone info for Sumter and it changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Sumter you get a frost after March 15 be ready to cover your flowering maple in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Sumter

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 Sumter

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