One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

A common way of making a decision about when it's the best time to plant schizanthus is to look at the USDA zone info for Ripley.

Planting Calendar for Schizanthus

Frost tolerance for schizanthus:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

Since schizanthus are not cold tolerant you must wait until after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant schizanthus 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 schizanthus and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your schizanthus may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your schizanthus indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Ripley. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 5°F.

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for Ripley and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Ripley last frost occurs after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your schizanthus if you have a surprise late frost.

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.