When to Plant Peonies in Auburn, NY

The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant peonies is to examine the USDA zone info for Auburn.


Planting Calendar for Peonies

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

You can plant peonies a bit earlier in the year because they are barely cold tolerant.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant peonies
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant peonies
Probably not a good time to plant peonies

The earliest that you can plant peonies in Auburn 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 peonies and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your peonies may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your peonies indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Auburn. You should expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Auburn is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Auburn last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your peonies in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Auburn

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-10°F
Highest Expected Low-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Auburn

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