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 Rifle you can figure out when it's the best time to plant aubrieta by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Aubrieta

Frost tolerance for aubrieta:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Aubrieta do well in moderate cold which tells us that you can get them planted earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant aubrieta in Rifle 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 aubrieta and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your aubrieta may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your aubrieta indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Rifle the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Rifle is not always accurate the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Rifle you get a frost after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your aubrieta in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Rifle

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 Rifle

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