When to Plant Lobelia in Dover, DE

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.

A way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant lobelia is to check out the USDA zone info for Dover.


Planting Calendar for Lobelia

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

Lobelia do ok in pretty solid cold which tells us that you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant lobelia
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant lobelia
Probably not a good time to plant lobelia

The earliest that you can plant lobelia in Dover 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 lobelia and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your lobelia may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your lobelia indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Dover the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You should expect an average low temperature of 0°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Dover and it is different every year. Since half of the time in Dover you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your lobelia if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Dover

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low0°F
Highest Expected Low5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 0°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 5°F.

Plants to Grow in Dover

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