One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

In Petoskey you can determine when to plant lupine by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Lupine

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

You can plant lupine a little earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather.

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

Last Frost Date

In Petoskey the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Petoskey may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Petoskey last frost occurs after April 15 so always be ready to cover your lupine in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Petoskey

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 Petoskey

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