One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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.

By looking at the USDA zone info for Clay it's a good idea to figure out when it's a good idea to plant lupine.

Planting Calendar for Lupine

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

Lupine do ok in a little bit of cold which means that you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant lupine in Clay 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 lupine and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your lupine may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your lupine indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Clay. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 5°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Clay is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Clay it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your lupine if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Clay

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

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

Plants to Grow in Clay

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