One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out 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 should be able to estimate when it's a good idea to plant sweet williams by looking at the USDA zone info for Hastings.

Planting Calendar for Sweet Williams

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

Sweet Williams do well in moderate cold which means that you can start planting them earlier than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant sweet williams in Hastings 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 sweet williams and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your sweet williams may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your sweet williams indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Hastings. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Hastings is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Hastings there is a last frost after April 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your sweet williams if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Hastings

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 Hastings

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