One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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.

It's possible to determine when you can plant bleeding hearts by referring to the USDA zone info for Ruston.

Planting Calendar for Bleeding Hearts

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

Since bleeding hearts do ok in moderate cold you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant bleeding hearts in Ruston 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 bleeding hearts and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your bleeding hearts may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your bleeding hearts indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Ruston. You should expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Ruston is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Ruston last frost occurs after March 15 be ready to protect your bleeding hearts in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Ruston

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°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 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Ruston

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