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 estimating when to plant catharanthus is to look at the USDA zone info for Hondo.

Planting Calendar for Catharanthus

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

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

The earliest that you can plant catharanthus in Hondo 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 catharanthus and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your catharanthus may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your catharanthus indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Hondo. You can expect an average low temperature of 15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Hondo is just an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Hondo last frost occurs after March 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your catharanthus if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Hondo

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 Hondo

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