One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant lunaria is to examine the USDA zone info for Dover.

Planting Calendar for Lunaria

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

Lunaria can survive in some cold which tells us that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

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

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Dover. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Dover is not always accurate the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Dover there is a last frost after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your lunaria in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Dover

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

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

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

Plants to Grow in Dover

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