One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

The USDA zone info for Ephrata can be reviewed to estimate when to plant arabis.

Planting Calendar for Arabis

Frost tolerance for arabis:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Arabis do ok in pretty solid cold which means that you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant arabis in Ephrata 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 arabis and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your arabis may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your arabis indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost may not be accurate from year to year because it is based on the USDA zone info for Ephrata and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Ephrata there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to cover your arabis in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Ephrata

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 Ephrata

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