One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Madisonville should be reffered to in order to determine when it's a good idea to plant astilbe.

Planting Calendar for Astilbe

Frost tolerance for astilbe:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Since astilbe are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

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

The last month that you can plant astilbe and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your astilbe may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your astilbe indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Madisonville. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 0°F.

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost may not be accurate from year to year because it is based on the USDA zone info for Madisonville and it changes from year to year. Half of the time in Madisonville you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your astilbe in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Madisonville

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	0°F
Highest Expected Low	5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 0°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 5°F.

Plants to Grow in Madisonville

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