Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Rochester can be reffered to in order to figure out when it's a good idea to plant nigella.

Planting Calendar for Nigella

Frost tolerance for nigella:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Nigella can survive in a bit of cold which means that you can plant them a lot earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant nigella in Rochester 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 nigella and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your nigella may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your nigella indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Rochester is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Rochester it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your nigella in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Rochester

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 Rochester

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