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.

In Austin you can determine when it's a good idea to plant hardy hibiscus by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Hardy Hibiscus

Frost tolerance for hardy hibiscus:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Hardy Hibiscus do ok in a bit of cold which tells us that you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant hardy hibiscus in Austin is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant hardy hibiscus and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your hardy hibiscus may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your hardy hibiscus indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Austin. It might get as low as 15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Austin may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Austin there is a last frost after March 15 so always be ready to cover your hardy hibiscus in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Austin

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 20°F.

Plants to Grow in Austin

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