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.

By checking out the USDA zone info for Bethel it's a good idea to determine when you can plant hardy hibiscus.

Planting Calendar for Hardy Hibiscus

Frost tolerance for hardy hibiscus:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Since hardy hibiscus are very cold tolerant you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant hardy hibiscus in Bethel 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 hardy hibiscus and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your hardy hibiscus may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your hardy hibiscus indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on May 15 in Bethel. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -35°F.

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Bethel and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Bethel there is a last frost after May 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your hardy hibiscus in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Bethel

Here is the info for USDA Zone 3b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-35°F
Highest Expected Low	-30°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -35°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -30°F.

Plants to Grow in Bethel

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