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.

A common way of making a decision about when to plant columbine is to examine the USDA zone info for Chelsea.

Planting Calendar for Columbine

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

Columbine do ok in some cold which tells us that you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant columbine in Chelsea 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. Any later than that and your columbine may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your columbine indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on March 15 in Chelsea. You should expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Chelsea is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Chelsea you get surprised by a frost after March 15 be ready to cover your columbine in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Chelsea

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°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 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Chelsea

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