One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of making a decision about when to plant bleeding hearts is to examine the USDA zone info for Carbondale.

Planting Calendar for Bleeding Hearts

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

Bleeding Hearts are barely cold tolerant which tells us that you can start planting them slightly earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant bleeding hearts in Carbondale 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 bleeding hearts and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your bleeding hearts may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your bleeding hearts indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Carbondale the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Carbondale is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Carbondale you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your bleeding hearts if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Carbondale

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-15°F
Highest Expected Low	-10°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 -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Carbondale

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