One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

In Staunton you can figure out when you can plant balsam by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Balsam

Frost tolerance for balsam:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

It's a bad idea to plant balsam until after the last frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant balsam in Staunton is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant balsam and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your balsam may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your balsam indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Staunton. You can expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Staunton may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Staunton last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your balsam if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Staunton

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 Staunton

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