Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of figuring out when it's the best time to plant astilbe is to look at the USDA zone info for Bellingham.

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.

Astilbe do ok in moderate cold which means that you can plant them slightly earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant astilbe in Bellingham 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. If you wait any later than that and your astilbe may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your astilbe indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on March 15 in Bellingham. You can expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Bellingham is not always accurate the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Bellingham there is a last frost after March 15 be ready to cover your astilbe in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Bellingham

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 Bellingham

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