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.

By looking at the USDA zone info for Rochester you will be able to determine when it's the best time to plant impatiens.

Planting Calendar for Impatiens

Frost tolerance for impatiens:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

It's probably a bad idea to plant impatiens until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant impatiens in Rochester is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Rochester. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Rochester is not always accurate the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Rochester you get a frost after April 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your impatiens if you have a 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.