One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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.

The USDA zone info for Chesapeake can be reviewed to determine when you can plant asters.

Planting Calendar for Asters

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

You can plant asters just a bit earlier in the year because they are moderately cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant asters in Chesapeake 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 asters and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your asters may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your asters indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on March 15 in Chesapeake. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Chesapeake may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Chesapeake you get surprised by a frost after March 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your asters if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Chesapeake

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 Chesapeake

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