One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

A way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant gladiolus is to examine the USDA zone info for Bristol.

Planting Calendar for Gladiolus

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

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

The earliest that you can plant gladiolus in Bristol 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 gladiolus and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your gladiolus may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your gladiolus indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Bristol and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Bristol there is a last frost after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your gladiolus in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Bristol

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 Bristol

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