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 way of figuring out when you can plant phlox is to use the USDA zone info for Cobleskill.

Planting Calendar for Phlox

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

Since phlox are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather you can plant them a little earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant phlox in Cobleskill 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 phlox and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your phlox may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your phlox indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Cobleskill is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Cobleskill you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your phlox if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Cobleskill

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 Cobleskill

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