The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

In Rifle you can determine when it's possible to plant bee balm by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Bee Balm

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

You can plant bee balm a bit earlier in the year because they are barely cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant bee balm in Rifle 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 bee balm and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your bee balm may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your bee balm indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Rifle. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Rifle and it is different every year. Since half of the time in Rifle last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your bee balm if you have a late frost.

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.