One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

One way of making a decision about when it's the best time to plant cuphea is to examine the USDA zone info for Belton.

Planting Calendar for Cuphea

Frost tolerance for cuphea:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

It's not a good idea to plant cuphea until after the last frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant cuphea in Belton 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 cuphea and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your cuphea may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your cuphea indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on March 15 in Belton. It might get as low as 15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Belton may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Belton you get surprised by a frost after March 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your cuphea in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Belton

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 Belton

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