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.

The USDA zone info for Alfred can be reviewed to figure out when it's a good idea to plant bougainvillea.

Planting Calendar for Bougainvillea

Frost tolerance for bougainvillea:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

You should not plant bougainvillea until after the last frost because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant bougainvillea in Alfred 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 bougainvillea and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your bougainvillea may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your bougainvillea indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Alfred. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Alfred is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Alfred you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your bougainvillea if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Alfred

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 Alfred

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