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.

A way of figuring out when it's possible to plant oenothera is to examine the USDA zone info for Somerset.

Planting Calendar for Oenothera

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

Oenothera tend to make it in a little bit of cold which means that you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Somerset. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Somerset is not always accurate the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Somerset you get a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your oenothera if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Somerset

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 Somerset

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