One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

The USDA zone info for Alpena should be reffered to in order to determine when you can plant bleeding hearts.

Planting Calendar for Bleeding Hearts

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

You can plant bleeding hearts just a tiny bit earlier in the year because they are barely cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant bleeding hearts in Alpena 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 bleeding hearts and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your bleeding hearts may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your bleeding hearts indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Alpena. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Alpena may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Alpena last frost occurs after April 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your bleeding hearts in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Alpena

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 Alpena

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