One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

You will be able to determine when it's possible to plant columbine by looking at the USDA zone info for Cohoes.

Planting Calendar for Columbine

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

Since columbine are moderately cold tolerant you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant columbine in Cohoes 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 columbine and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your columbine may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your columbine indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Cohoes. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Cohoes and it is different every year. Half of the time in Cohoes last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your columbine in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Cohoes

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 Cohoes

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