One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Fort Thomas should be reffered to in order to estimate when it's the best time to plant balsam.

Planting Calendar for Balsam

Frost tolerance for balsam:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

Balsam are not cold tolerant which means that you need to wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant balsam in Fort Thomas is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant balsam and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your balsam may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your balsam indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Fort Thomas. You can expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Fort Thomas is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Fort Thomas last frost occurs after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your balsam if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Fort Thomas

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Fort Thomas

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