When to Plant Arabis in Shippensburg, 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.

The first opportunity to plant arabis in Shippensburg can be determined by looking at the USDA zone info.


Planting Calendar for Arabis

Frost tolerance for arabis: Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant: Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Arabis do ok in quite a bit of cold which means that you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

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

The earliest that you can plant arabis in Shippensburg 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 arabis and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your arabis may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your arabis indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Shippensburg 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 Shippensburg may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Shippensburg you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your arabis in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Shippensburg

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 Low0°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 Shippensburg

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