One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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 chance to plant centaurea in The Colony can be estimated by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Centaurea

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

You can plant centaurea just a bit earlier in the year because they do well in moderate cold.

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

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

Last Frost Date

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

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for The Colony is an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in The Colony you get a frost after March 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your centaurea if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for The Colony

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 The Colony

You may be interested in your other planting guides for The Colony.