Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of determining when to plant heliotrope is to examine the USDA zone info for Shelbyville.

Planting Calendar for Heliotrope

Frost tolerance for heliotrope:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

It's not a good idea to plant heliotrope until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant heliotrope in Shelbyville 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 heliotrope and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your heliotrope may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your heliotrope indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Shelbyville. You should expect an average low temperature of 0°F in the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Shelbyville is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Shelbyville it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your heliotrope in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Shelbyville

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 Shelbyville

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