One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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 earliest that you can plant creeping phlox in Cortland can be estimated by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Creeping Phlox

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

You can plant creeping phlox a lot earlier in the year because they are very cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant creeping phlox in Cortland 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 creeping phlox and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your creeping phlox may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your creeping phlox indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Cortland. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Cortland is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Cortland you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your creeping phlox in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Cortland

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 Cortland

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