One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

In Erie you can estimate when you can plant gayfeather by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Gayfeather

Frost tolerance for gayfeather:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

You can plant gayfeather earlier in the year because they do well in cold.

The earliest that you can plant gayfeather in Erie 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 gayfeather and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your gayfeather may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your gayfeather indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Erie the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Erie is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Erie last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your gayfeather in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Erie

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

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

Plants to Grow in Erie

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