One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The first opportunity to plant delphinium in Monticello can be determined by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Delphinium

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

Delphinium are barely cold tolerant which means that you can get them planted just a bit earlier than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant delphinium in Monticello 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 delphinium and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your delphinium may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your delphinium indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Monticello. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Monticello is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Monticello it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your delphinium if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Monticello

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 Monticello

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