One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant lisianthus is to use the USDA zone info for Bethlehem.

Planting Calendar for Lisianthus

Frost tolerance for lisianthus:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

It's probably a bad idea to plant lisianthus until after the last frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant lisianthus in Bethlehem 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 lisianthus and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your lisianthus may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your lisianthus indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Bethlehem. It might get as low as -5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Bethlehem is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Bethlehem last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your lisianthus if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Bethlehem

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Bethlehem

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