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

One way of figuring out when it's possible to plant rudbeckia is to refer to the USDA zone info for Shenandoah.

Planting Calendar for Rudbeckia

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

Rudbeckia are moderately cold tolerant which means that you can plant them a little bit earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant rudbeckia in Shenandoah 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 rudbeckia and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your rudbeckia may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your rudbeckia indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Shenandoah is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Shenandoah there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your rudbeckia in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Shenandoah

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 Shenandoah

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