The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of figuring out when it's a good idea to plant lupine is to use the USDA zone info for Columbus.

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

The earliest that you can plant lupine in Columbus 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 fully mature. If you are starting your lupine indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on March 15 in Columbus. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 10°F.

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Columbus and it changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Columbus you get surprised by a frost after March 15 be ready to protect your lupine if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Columbus

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Columbus

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