The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of making a decision about when it's the best time to plant columbine is to use the USDA zone info for Auburn.

Planting Calendar for Columbine

Frost tolerance for columbine:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Since columbine do well in moderate cold you can plant them a little earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant columbine in Auburn 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 columbine and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your columbine may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your columbine indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Auburn. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Auburn is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Auburn last frost occurs after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your columbine in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Auburn

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 Auburn

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