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.

In Concord you can determine when it's the best time to plant penstemon by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Penstemon

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

Penstemon are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather which means that you can get them planted earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant penstemon in Concord 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. Any later than that and your penstemon may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your penstemon indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Concord. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 5°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Concord is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Concord there is a last frost after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your penstemon in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Concord

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 Concord

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