One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate 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 figuring out when it's possible to plant hardy asters is to check out the USDA zone info for Monticello.

Planting Calendar for Hardy Asters

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

You can plant hardy asters just a tiny bit earlier in the year because they do ok in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant hardy asters 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 hardy asters and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your hardy asters may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your hardy asters indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Monticello is not always accurate the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Monticello you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your hardy asters in the event of 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.