The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

In Lowell you can determine when it's possible to plant hardy asters by looking at the USDA zone info.

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.

Since hardy asters do ok in moderate cold you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant hardy asters in Lowell 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. Any later than that and your hardy asters may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your hardy asters indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Lowell. You should expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Lowell is just an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Lowell it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your hardy asters if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Lowell

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-10°F
Highest Expected Low	-5°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 -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Lowell

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