When to Plant Peonies in Fort Wayne, IN

One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

A common way of estimating when it's possible to plant peonies is to look at the USDA zone info for Fort Wayne.


Planting Calendar for Peonies

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

Peonies are barely cold tolerant which means that you can start planting them slightly earlier than more sensitive plants.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant peonies
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant peonies
Probably not a good time to plant peonies

The earliest that you can plant peonies in Fort Wayne 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 peonies and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your peonies may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your peonies indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Fort Wayne the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -10°F.

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Fort Wayne and it will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Fort Wayne you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your peonies in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Fort Wayne

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-10°F
Highest Expected Low-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Fort Wayne

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Fort Wayne.