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.

One way of figuring out when it's possible to plant liatris is to look at the USDA zone info for Smithfield.

Planting Calendar for Liatris

Frost tolerance for liatris:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Liatris are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather which tells us that you can get them planted much earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant liatris in Smithfield 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 liatris and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your liatris may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your liatris indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Smithfield. It might get as low as 10°F during the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Smithfield may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Smithfield it frosts late in the year after March 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your liatris if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Smithfield

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 Smithfield

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