When to Plant Asters in Whitefish, MT

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate 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 figuring out when it's possible to plant asters is to look at the USDA zone info for Whitefish.


Planting Calendar for Asters

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

Asters do well in moderate cold which means that you can get them planted earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

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

The earliest that you can plant asters in Whitefish 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 asters and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your asters may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your asters indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Whitefish the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -20°F.

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Whitefish and it changes from year to year. Half of the time in Whitefish last frost occurs after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your asters if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Whitefish

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-20°F
Highest Expected Low-15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Whitefish

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