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.

By looking at the USDA zone info for Fort Payne you will be able to estimate when to plant bee balm.

Planting Calendar for Bee Balm

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

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

The earliest that you can plant bee balm in Fort Payne 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 bee balm and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your bee balm may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your bee balm indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Fort Payne. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 5°F.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Fort Payne is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Fort Payne it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your bee balm if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Fort Payne

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 Fort Payne

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Fort Payne.