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.

You can figure out when it's a good idea to plant astilbe in Lowell by referring to the USDA zone info.

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 one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather which means that you can plant them slightly earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant astilbe in Lowell 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 really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your astilbe indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Lowell. You can expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Lowell may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Lowell you get a frost after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your astilbe if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Lowell

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°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 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Lowell

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