Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to determine your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

You should be able to determine when to plant columbine by looking at the USDA zone info for Bristol.

Planting Calendar for Columbine

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

Columbine do well in moderate cold which means that you can start planting them earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

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

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Bristol. You should expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Bristol is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Bristol you get a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your columbine in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Bristol

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-10°F
Highest Expected Low	-5°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 -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Bristol

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