One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant bleeding hearts is to check out the USDA zone info for Lake Stevens.

Planting Calendar for Bleeding Hearts

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

Since bleeding hearts do ok in moderate cold 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 bleeding hearts in Lake Stevens 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 bleeding hearts and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your bleeding hearts may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your bleeding hearts indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on March 15 in Lake Stevens. It might get as low as 15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Lake Stevens may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Lake Stevens you get surprised by a frost after March 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your bleeding hearts if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Lake Stevens

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°F

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

Plants to Grow in Lake Stevens

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Lake Stevens.