When to Plant Penstemon in Newburyport, MA

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

You can determine when to plant penstemon in Newburyport by referring to the USDA zone info.


Planting Calendar for Penstemon

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

Since penstemon do well in moderate cold you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

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

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

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Newburyport may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Newburyport you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your penstemon in the event of a surprise late frost.

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 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 Newburyport

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