One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Cleveland can be used to estimate when to plant painted tongues.

Planting Calendar for Painted Tongues

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

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

The earliest that you can plant painted tongues in Cleveland is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant painted tongues and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your painted tongues may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your painted tongues indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on February 15 in Cleveland. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 20°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Cleveland is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Cleveland it frosts late in the year after February 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your painted tongues if you have 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.