One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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.

By checking out the USDA zone info for Stafford you should be able to figure out when to plant cleome.

Planting Calendar for Cleome

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

It's not a good idea to plant cleome until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant cleome in Stafford is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant cleome and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your cleome may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your cleome indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Stafford. It might get as low as 20°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Stafford is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Stafford you get surprised by a frost after February 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your cleome if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Stafford

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 Stafford

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