One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Alexandria can be read to estimate when it's the best time to plant strawflowers.

Planting Calendar for Strawflowers

Frost tolerance for strawflowers:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Since strawflowers are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant strawflowers in Alexandria 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 strawflowers and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your strawflowers may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your strawflowers indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Alexandria the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You can 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 will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Alexandria you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your strawflowers 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.