When to Plant Torch Lilys in Portsmouth, NH

Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of determining when it's a good idea to plant torch lilys is to check out the USDA zone info for Portsmouth.


Planting Calendar for Torch Lilys

Frost tolerance for torch lilys: Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant: Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Torch Lilys tend to make it in pretty solid cold which tells us that you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

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

The earliest that you can plant torch lilys in Portsmouth 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 torch lilys and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your torch lilys may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your torch lilys indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Portsmouth the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -10°F.

Remember that USDA zone info for Portsmouth may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Portsmouth there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your torch lilys if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Portsmouth

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

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

Plants to Grow in Portsmouth

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