One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of making a decision about when it's the best time to plant heliotrope is to use the USDA zone info for New Philadelphia.

Planting Calendar for Heliotrope

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

It's not a good idea to plant heliotrope until after all chance of frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant heliotrope in New Philadelphia 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 heliotrope and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your heliotrope may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your heliotrope indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for New Philadelphia may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in New Philadelphia last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your heliotrope if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for New Philadelphia

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 New Philadelphia

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