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.

The USDA zone info for Stanwood can be looked at to figure out when it's the best time to plant asters.

Planting Calendar for Asters

Frost tolerance for asters:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Since asters are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant asters in Stanwood 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 asters and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your asters may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your asters indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Stanwood is an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Stanwood last frost occurs after March 15 so always be ready to protect your asters in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Stanwood

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 Stanwood

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