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.

One way of determining when it's the best time to plant catharanthus is to look at the USDA zone info for Kermit.

Planting Calendar for Catharanthus

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

Catharanthus require warm weather which tells us that it's necessary to wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant catharanthus in Kermit 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 really do well. If you are starting your catharanthus indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on March 15 in Kermit. You should expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Kermit is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Kermit there is a last frost after March 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your catharanthus if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Kermit

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 Kermit

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