The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule. 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 Portsmouth should be looked at to figure out when it's a good idea to plant purple bell vines.

Planting Calendar for Purple Bell Vines

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

You can plant purple bell vines a bit earlier in the year because they do ok in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant purple bell vines in Portsmouth 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 purple bell vines and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your purple bell vines may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your purple bell vines indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on March 15 in Portsmouth. You should expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Portsmouth and it will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Portsmouth you get a frost after March 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your purple bell vines if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Portsmouth

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 Portsmouth

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