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 determining when you can plant balloon flower is to refer to the USDA zone info for Donora.

Planting Calendar for Balloon Flower

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

Balloon Flower do ok in moderate cold which tells us that you can plant them slightly earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant balloon flower in Donora is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant balloon flower and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your balloon flower may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your balloon flower 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 Donora. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -5°F.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Donora may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Donora you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your balloon flower in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Donora

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 Donora

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