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.

A way of estimating when to plant sunflowers is to use the USDA zone info for Jefferson City.

Planting Calendar for Sunflowers

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

Sunflowers are not cold tolerant which tells us that you must wait until it warms up after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant sunflowers in Jefferson City 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 sunflowers and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your sunflowers may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your sunflowers indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Jefferson City. You can expect an average low temperature of 0°F in the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Jefferson City and it is different every year. Half of the time in Jefferson City it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your sunflowers in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Jefferson City

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	0°F
Highest Expected Low	5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 0°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 5°F.

Plants to Grow in Jefferson City

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Jefferson City.