One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out 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.

One way of making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant astilbe is to consult the USDA zone info for Oxford.

Planting Calendar for Astilbe

Frost tolerance for astilbe:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Astilbe can survive in very little cold which tells us that you can plant them just a tiny bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Oxford. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 5°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 Oxford and it is different every year. Since half of the time in Oxford you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your astilbe in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Oxford

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	5°F
Highest Expected Low	10°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 10°F.

Plants to Grow in Oxford

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