One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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 a good idea to figure out when you can plant centaurea by looking at the USDA zone info for University Place.

Planting Calendar for Centaurea

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

Since centaurea are moderately cold tolerant you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant centaurea in University Place 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 centaurea and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your centaurea may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your centaurea indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in University Place. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for University Place is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in University Place there is a last frost after March 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your centaurea in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for University Place

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 20°F.

Plants to Grow in University Place

You may be interested in your other planting guides for University Place.