Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to determine your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of figuring out when it's a good idea to plant iresene is to use the USDA zone info for Punxsutawney.

Planting Calendar for Iresene

Frost tolerance for iresene:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

Since iresene are not cold tolerant you have to wait until after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant iresene in Punxsutawney is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant iresene and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your iresene may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your iresene indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Punxsutawney. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Punxsutawney is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Punxsutawney you get a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your iresene in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Punxsutawney

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-15°F
Highest Expected Low	-10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Punxsutawney

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