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.

A way of figuring out when you can plant festuca is to examine the USDA zone info for Culpeper.

Planting Calendar for Festuca

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

Festuca are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather which means that you can plant them earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant festuca in Culpeper 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 festuca and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your festuca may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your festuca indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Culpeper the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 0°F.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Culpeper and it is different every year. Since half of the time in Culpeper you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your festuca in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Culpeper

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	0°F
Highest Expected Low	5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 0°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 5°F.

Plants to Grow in Culpeper

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