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.

A way of determining when to plant lupine is to refer to the USDA zone info for Big Stone Gap.

Planting Calendar for Lupine

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

Since lupine are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather you can plant them a little earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant lupine in Big Stone Gap 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. Any later than that and your lupine may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your lupine indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Big Stone Gap. You can expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Big Stone Gap is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Big Stone Gap last frost occurs after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your lupine if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Big Stone Gap

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 Low	0°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 Big Stone Gap

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Big Stone Gap.