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.

It's a good idea to figure out when it's a good idea to plant hosta by referring to the USDA zone info for Chesapeake.

Planting Calendar for Hosta

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

Hosta do well in moderate cold which tells us that you can plant them earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant hosta 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 hosta and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your hosta may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your hosta indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Chesapeake is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Chesapeake you get a frost after March 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your hosta 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.