One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of determining when it's a good idea to plant pampas grass is to examine the USDA zone info for Ripley.

Planting Calendar for Pampas Grass

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

Since pampas grass do not do well in cold weather you need to wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

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

Last Frost Date

In Ripley the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You can expect an average low temperature of 5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Ripley may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Ripley there is a last frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your pampas grass in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Ripley

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 Ripley

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