One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

You should be able to figure out when it's a good idea to plant creeping phlox by reviewing the USDA zone info for New Paltz.

Planting Calendar for Creeping Phlox

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

Since creeping phlox are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather you can plant them a lot earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant creeping phlox in New Paltz 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. If you wait any later than that and your creeping phlox may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your creeping phlox indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in New Paltz. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for New Paltz is just an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in New Paltz last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your creeping phlox in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for New Paltz

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 New Paltz

You may be interested in your other planting guides for New Paltz.