One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of figuring out when it's possible to plant penstemon is to examine the USDA zone info for Missouri City.

Planting Calendar for Penstemon

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

Penstemon tend to make it in moderate cold which tells us that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant penstemon in Missouri City 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 penstemon and expect a good harvest is probably October. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your penstemon may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your penstemon indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on February 15 in Missouri City. It might get as low as 20°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Missouri City is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Missouri City there is a last frost after February 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your penstemon if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Missouri City

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 Low	20°F
Highest Expected Low	25°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 Missouri City

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Missouri City.