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 determining when it's a good idea to plant astilbe is to look at the USDA zone info for Murphysboro.

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.

You can plant astilbe a bit earlier in the year because they are barely cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant astilbe in Murphysboro 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 few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Murphysboro. You should expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Murphysboro is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Murphysboro you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your astilbe in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Murphysboro

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°F

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

Plants to Grow in Murphysboro

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