One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of determining when it's possible to plant arabis is to examine the USDA zone info for Amsterdam.

Planting Calendar for Arabis

Frost tolerance for arabis:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Arabis do ok in a bit of cold which means that you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant arabis in Amsterdam 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 arabis and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your arabis may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your arabis 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 Amsterdam. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Amsterdam is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Amsterdam it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your arabis in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Amsterdam

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 Amsterdam

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