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.

The USDA zone info for El Paso should be looked at to figure out when it's possible to plant helianthemum.

Planting Calendar for Helianthemum

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

Since helianthemum are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather you can plant them a little earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on March 15 in El Paso. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for El Paso is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in El Paso there is a last frost after March 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your helianthemum if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for El Paso

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 15°F.

Plants to Grow in El Paso

You may be interested in your other planting guides for El Paso.