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

In Rensselaer you can estimate when it's a good idea to plant liatris by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Liatris

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

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

The earliest that you can plant liatris in Rensselaer 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 liatris and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your liatris may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your liatris indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Rensselaer. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Rensselaer is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Rensselaer it frosts late in the year after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your liatris if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Rensselaer

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 Rensselaer

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