One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of making a decision about when you can plant impatiens is to check out the USDA zone info for Lancaster.

Planting Calendar for Impatiens

Frost tolerance for impatiens:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

It's a bad idea to plant impatiens until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant impatiens in Lancaster is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant impatiens and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your impatiens may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your impatiens indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Lancaster. You can expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Lancaster is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Lancaster last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your impatiens if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Lancaster

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 Lancaster

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