Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

In Elmira you can determine when it's a good idea to plant festuca by reviewing the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Festuca

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

Festuca are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather which tells us that you can plant them a little bit earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant festuca in Elmira 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 festuca and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your festuca may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your festuca indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Elmira. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Elmira is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Elmira last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your festuca if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Elmira

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 Elmira

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