One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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 New Ulm should be reffered to in order to estimate when it's the best time to plant lupine.

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 bit earlier in the year because they do well in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant lupine in New Ulm 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 lupine and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your lupine may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your lupine indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on May 15 in New Ulm. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -25°F.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for New Ulm may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in New Ulm you get a frost after May 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your lupine if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for New Ulm

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-25°F
Highest Expected Low	-20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -20°F.

Plants to Grow in New Ulm

You may be interested in your other planting guides for New Ulm.