One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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 Keyport you can figure out when it's a good idea to plant astilbe by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Astilbe

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

Since astilbe do ok in moderate cold you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant astilbe in Keyport 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 astilbe and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your astilbe may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your astilbe indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Keyport. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 0°F.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Keyport is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Keyport last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your astilbe if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Keyport

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	0°F
Highest Expected Low	5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 0°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 5°F.

Plants to Grow in Keyport

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