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

One way of figuring out when you can plant cleome is to refer to the USDA zone info for Crystal City.

Planting Calendar for Cleome

Frost tolerance for cleome:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

You should not plant cleome until after the last frost because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant cleome in Crystal City 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 cleome and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your cleome may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your cleome indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Crystal City. It might get as low as 20°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Crystal City is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Crystal City last frost occurs after February 15 be ready to protect your cleome if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Crystal City

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 Crystal City

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Crystal City.