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.

You should be able to figure out when you can plant penstemon by looking at the USDA zone info for New Holland.

Planting Calendar for Penstemon

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

Penstemon tend to make it in some cold which tells us that you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant penstemon in New Holland 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 grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your penstemon indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in New Holland. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -5°F.

Since the USDA zone info for New Holland may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in New Holland it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your penstemon in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for New Holland

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 New Holland

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