One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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.

By checking out the USDA zone info for Cortland it's a good idea to figure out when it's a good idea to plant lupine.

Planting Calendar for Lupine

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

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

The earliest that you can plant lupine 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 lupine and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your lupine may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your lupine indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Cortland the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Cortland is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to 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 lupine if you have a late frost.

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.