One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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.

A common way of estimating when you can plant penstemon is to refer to the USDA zone info for Bloomfield.

Planting Calendar for Penstemon

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

Penstemon can survive in a little bit of cold which means that you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant penstemon in Bloomfield 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 penstemon and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your penstemon may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your penstemon indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Bloomfield. You can expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Bloomfield is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Bloomfield you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your penstemon in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Bloomfield

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

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

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

Plants to Grow in Bloomfield

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