One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out 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.

The best time to plant gayfeather in Rifle can be determined by checking out 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.

Since gayfeather do well in cold you can plant them a lot earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant gayfeather 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 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. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your gayfeather indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Rifle. 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 changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Rifle you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your gayfeather 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.