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 Monett should be reviewed to estimate when it's a good idea to plant penstemon.

Planting Calendar for Penstemon

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

Since penstemon are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Monett. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -5°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Monett may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Monett you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your penstemon in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Monett

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Monett

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