One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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.

A way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant bee balm is to look at the USDA zone info for Saranac Lake.

Planting Calendar for Bee Balm

Frost tolerance for bee balm:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Since bee balm are barely cold tolerant you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant bee balm in Saranac Lake 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 bee balm and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your bee balm may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your bee balm indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on May 15 in Saranac Lake. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -30°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Saranac Lake is not always accurate the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Saranac Lake it frosts late in the year after May 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your bee balm in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Saranac Lake

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-30°F
Highest Expected Low	-25°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -30°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -25°F.

Plants to Grow in Saranac Lake

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Saranac Lake.