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.

A common way of estimating when it's possible to plant fanflower is to consult the USDA zone info for Altoona.

Planting Calendar for Fanflower

Frost tolerance for fanflower:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

Fanflower are not cold tolerant which means that you need to wait until it warms up after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant fanflower in Altoona is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant fanflower and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your fanflower may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your fanflower indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Altoona. It might get as low as -20°F during the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for Altoona and it is different every year. Half of the time in Altoona there is a last frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your fanflower in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Altoona

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Altoona

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