The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of estimating when to plant begonias is to check out the USDA zone info for Charleston.

Planting Calendar for Begonias

Frost tolerance for begonias:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

You should not plant begonias until after the last frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant begonias in Charleston is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

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

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Charleston. You can expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Charleston is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Charleston there is a last frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your begonias if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Charleston

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

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

Plants to Grow in Charleston

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