When to Plant Begonias in Boston, MA

One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

The USDA zone info for Boston can be reffered to in order to figure out when it's the best time to plant begonias.


Planting Calendar for Begonias

Frost tolerance for begonias: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After the last frost has passed.

It's probably a bad idea to plant begonias until after the last frost because they require warm weather.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant begonias
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant begonias
Probably not a good time to plant begonias

The earliest that you can plant begonias in Boston 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 begonias and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your begonias may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your begonias indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Boston. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -5°F.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Boston is an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Boston you get a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your begonias in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Boston

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 Low0°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 Boston

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