When to Plant Lavender in Houston, TX

One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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 Houston should be used to estimate when to plant lavender.


Planting Calendar for Lavender

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

Lavender tend to make it in a little bit of cold which means that you can plant them a little earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant lavender
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant lavender
Probably not a good time to plant lavender

The earliest that you can plant lavender in Houston 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else 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 all chance of frost has passed is on February 15 in Houston. You should expect an average low temperature of 20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Houston is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Houston it frosts late in the year after February 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your lavender if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Houston

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 Low20°F
Highest Expected Low25°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 Houston

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