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.

The USDA zone info for Sumner can be reviewed to determine when 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.

Astilbe tend to make it in mild cold which tells us that you can plant them just a tiny bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant astilbe in Sumner 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 really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your astilbe indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Sumner is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Sumner last frost occurs after March 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your astilbe in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Sumner

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 Sumner

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