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.

One way of getting a good idea when it's the best time to plant astilbe is to look at the USDA zone info for Newburyport.

Planting Calendar for Astilbe

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

Astilbe do ok in moderate cold which means that you can start planting them slightly earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Newburyport. It might get as low as -5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Newburyport is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Newburyport it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your astilbe if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Newburyport

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 Newburyport

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