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.

In Richmond you can figure out when it's a good idea to plant coreopsis by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Coreopsis

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

Coreopsis do ok in a little bit of cold which tells us that you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant coreopsis in Richmond 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 coreopsis and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your coreopsis may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your coreopsis indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Richmond. It might get as low as 0°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Richmond is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Richmond you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so always be ready to protect your coreopsis in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Richmond

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 Richmond

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