When to Plant Columbine in Indiana, PA

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate 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 to plant columbine is to use the USDA zone info for Indiana.


Planting Calendar for Columbine

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

Columbine do well in moderate cold which tells us that you can get them planted earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant columbine
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant columbine
Probably not a good time to plant columbine

The earliest that you can plant columbine in Indiana 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 columbine and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your columbine may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your columbine indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Indiana the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You can expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Indiana is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Indiana there is a last frost after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your columbine if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Indiana

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 Indiana

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