One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the 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.

A common way of determining when you can plant columbine is to refer to the USDA zone info for North Adams.

Planting Calendar for Columbine

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

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

The earliest that you can plant columbine in North Adams 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 columbine and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your columbine may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your columbine indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in North Adams. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for North Adams is just an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in North Adams there is a last frost after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your columbine if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for North Adams

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 North Adams

You may be interested in your other planting guides for North Adams.