One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

One way of making a decision about when to plant alstromeria is to examine the USDA zone info for Niles.

Planting Calendar for Alstromeria

Frost tolerance for alstromeria:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Alstromeria do ok in some cold which means that you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant alstromeria in Niles 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 alstromeria and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your alstromeria may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your alstromeria indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Niles. You can expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Niles is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Niles last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your alstromeria if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Niles

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 Niles

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