When to Plant Hardy Asters in Fitchburg, MA

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 Fitchburg can be reffered to in order to estimate when it's possible to plant hardy asters.


Planting Calendar for Hardy Asters

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

Hardy Asters do well in very little cold which means that you can plant them just a tiny bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

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

The earliest that you can plant hardy asters in Fitchburg 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 hardy asters and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your hardy asters may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your hardy asters indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Fitchburg. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Fitchburg is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Fitchburg there is a last frost after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your hardy asters if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Fitchburg

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-15°F
Highest Expected Low-10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Fitchburg

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