One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

A common way of estimating when to plant lobelia is to refer to the USDA zone info for Ashland.

Planting Calendar for Lobelia

Frost tolerance for lobelia:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Lobelia are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather which tells us that you can plant them a quite a bit earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant lobelia in Ashland 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 lobelia and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your lobelia may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your lobelia indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on May 15 in Ashland. You should expect an average low temperature of -25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Ashland is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Ashland you get surprised by a frost after May 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your lobelia in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Ashland

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-25°F
Highest Expected Low	-20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -20°F.

Plants to Grow in Ashland

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