One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out 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.

A way of making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant lavender is to check out the USDA zone info for Cleveland.

Planting Calendar for Lavender

Frost tolerance for lavender:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Since lavender do well in moderate cold you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant lavender in Cleveland is January. However, you really should wait until February if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant lavender and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your lavender may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your lavender indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on February 15 in Cleveland. You can expect an average low temperature of 20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Cleveland may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Cleveland you get a frost after February 15 be ready to cover your lavender in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Cleveland

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	20°F
Highest Expected Low	25°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 25°F.

Plants to Grow in Cleveland

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