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.

The USDA zone info for Geneva can be reviewed to figure out when it's the best time to plant astilbe.

Planting Calendar for Astilbe

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

Astilbe are barely cold tolerant which means that you can start planting them slightly earlier than more sensitive plants.

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

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on March 15 in Geneva. You can expect an average low temperature of 15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Geneva is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Geneva you get a frost after March 15 be ready to cover your astilbe if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Geneva

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 20°F.

Plants to Grow in Geneva

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