Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of figuring out when it's possible to plant lupine is to examine the USDA zone info for Cortez.

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 more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant lupine in Cortez 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 grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your lupine indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Cortez. You can expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Cortez is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Cortez last frost occurs after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your lupine if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Cortez

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

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

Plants to Grow in Cortez

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