When to Plant Baby's Breath in Portland, ME

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate 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.

The USDA zone info for Portland can be used to estimate when you can plant baby's breath.


Planting Calendar for Baby's Breath

Frost tolerance for baby's breath: Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant: Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Since baby's breath are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather you can plant them a little earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant baby's breath
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant baby's breath
Probably not a good time to plant baby's breath

The earliest that you can plant baby's breath in Portland 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 baby's breath and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your baby's breath may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your baby's breath indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for Portland and it changes from year to year. Half of the time in Portland last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your baby's breath in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Portland

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 Portland

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