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.

By using the USDA zone info for Rutland it's a good idea to determine when it's a good idea to plant astilbe.

Planting Calendar for Astilbe

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

Since astilbe are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant astilbe in Rutland 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 astilbe and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your astilbe may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your astilbe indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Rutland. You can expect an average low temperature of -20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Rutland is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Rutland last frost occurs after April 15 so always be ready to cover your astilbe if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Rutland

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Rutland

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