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.

You will be able to determine when it's possible to plant columbine by checking out the USDA zone info for Richland Center.

Planting Calendar for Columbine

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

Since columbine are moderately cold tolerant 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 columbine in Richland Center 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 columbine and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your columbine may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your columbine indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on May 15 in Richland Center. You should expect an average low temperature of -25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Richland Center is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Richland Center you get surprised by a frost after May 15 so always be ready to cover your columbine if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Richland Center

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 Richland Center

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Richland Center.