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.

A common way of determining when it's a good idea to plant phlox is to look at the USDA zone info for Cambridge.

Planting Calendar for Phlox

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

Since phlox are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather you can plant them a little earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant phlox in Cambridge 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 phlox and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your phlox may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your phlox indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Cambridge. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -5°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Cambridge is not always accurate the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Cambridge there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your phlox if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Cambridge

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 Cambridge

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