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.

The first chance to plant gomphrena in Rochester can be estimated by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Gomphrena

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

Gomphrena tend to make it in some cold which means that you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant gomphrena in Rochester 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 gomphrena and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your gomphrena may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your gomphrena indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Rochester is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Rochester you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your gomphrena in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Rochester

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 Rochester

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