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 common way of determining when it's a good idea to plant lupine is to use the USDA zone info for Hillsboro.

Planting Calendar for Lupine

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

You can plant lupine a little earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant lupine in Hillsboro 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 lupine and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your lupine may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your lupine indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on March 15 in Hillsboro. You should expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Hillsboro is not always accurate the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Hillsboro it frosts late in the year after March 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your lupine in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Hillsboro

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°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 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Hillsboro

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