One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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.

A way of determining when it's the best time to plant cuphea is to look at the USDA zone info for Richardson.

Planting Calendar for Cuphea

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

It's probably a bad idea to plant cuphea until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant cuphea in Richardson 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 cuphea and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your cuphea may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your cuphea indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Richardson the average date of last frost happens on March 15. You should expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Richardson is an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Richardson last frost occurs after March 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your cuphea if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Richardson

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 Richardson

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