Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to determine your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of determining when to plant astilbe is to examine the USDA zone info for Pleasant Hill.

Planting Calendar for Astilbe

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

Since astilbe do ok in moderate cold you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant astilbe in Pleasant Hill 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 astilbe and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your astilbe may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your astilbe 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 has passed is on April 15 in Pleasant Hill. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Pleasant Hill is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Pleasant Hill last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your astilbe if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Pleasant Hill

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 Pleasant Hill

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Pleasant Hill.