When to Plant Chives in Stillwater, MN

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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 to plant chives by referring to the USDA zone info for Stillwater.


Planting Calendar for Chives

Frost tolerance for chives: Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant: Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Since chives do well in cold you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant chives
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant chives
Probably not a good time to plant chives

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

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is May 15 in Stillwater. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -25°F.

Remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Stillwater and it will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Stillwater it frosts late in the year after May 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your chives in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Stillwater

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 Stillwater

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