One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The first chance to plant sunflowers in Ripley can be determined by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Sunflowers

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

You can not plant sunflowers until after all chance of frost has passed because they require warm weather.

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

Last Frost Date

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

Always keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Ripley and it changes 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 sunflowers if you have 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.