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.

It's possible to estimate when it's a good idea to plant four-o-clock flower by looking at the USDA zone info for Alexandria.

Planting Calendar for Four-o-clock flower

Frost tolerance for four-o-clock flower:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

You really shouldn't plant four-o-clock flower until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant four-o-clock flower in Alexandria 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 four-o-clock flower and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your four-o-clock flower may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your four-o-clock flower indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Alexandria. You should expect an average low temperature of 5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Alexandria is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Alexandria you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your four-o-clock flower in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Alexandria

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	5°F
Highest Expected Low	10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 10°F.

Plants to Grow in Alexandria

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