One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

One way of figuring out when it's a good idea to plant hosta is to refer to the USDA zone info for Manhattan.

Planting Calendar for Hosta

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

You can plant hosta a little earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant hosta in Manhattan 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 hosta and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your hosta may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your hosta indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Manhattan. It might get as low as -10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Manhattan is not always accurate the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Manhattan there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your hosta if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Manhattan

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 Manhattan

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