One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out 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.

You can determine when it's the best time to plant impatiens in Reading by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Impatiens

Frost tolerance for impatiens:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

Impatiens do not do well in cold weather which means that it's necessary to wait until it warms up after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant impatiens in Reading 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 impatiens and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your impatiens may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your impatiens indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Reading the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You can expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Reading may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Reading you get a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your impatiens in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Reading

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 Reading

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