When to Plant Penstemon in New Cumberland, PA

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

By checking out the USDA zone info for New Cumberland it's a good idea to estimate when to plant penstemon.


Planting Calendar for Penstemon

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

Penstemon do well in moderate cold which means that you can start planting them earlier than more sensitive plants.

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

The earliest that you can plant penstemon in New Cumberland 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 penstemon and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your penstemon may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your penstemon indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in New Cumberland. It might get as low as 0°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for New Cumberland and it changes from year to year. Half of the time in New Cumberland you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your penstemon in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for New Cumberland

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low0°F
Highest Expected Low5°F

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

Plants to Grow in New Cumberland

You may be interested in your other planting guides for New Cumberland.