One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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 first opportunity to plant periwinkles in Lancaster should be determined by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Periwinkles

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

It's a bad idea to plant periwinkles until after the last frost has passed because they require warm weather.

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

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on March 15 in Lancaster. You can expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Lancaster is just an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Lancaster you get surprised by a frost after March 15 be ready to protect your periwinkles if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Lancaster

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 Lancaster

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