Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of figuring out when to plant hardy hibiscus is to look at the USDA zone info for Richmond.

Planting Calendar for Hardy Hibiscus

Frost tolerance for hardy hibiscus:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

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

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on February 15 in Richmond. You can expect an average low temperature of 20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Richmond is not always accurate the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Richmond you get surprised by a frost after February 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your hardy hibiscus in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Richmond

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 Richmond

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