One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the 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 it's a good idea to plant delphinium is to look at the USDA zone info for Bluefield.

Planting Calendar for Delphinium

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

Delphinium do ok in moderate cold which means that you can plant them slightly earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant delphinium in Bluefield 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 delphinium and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your delphinium may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your delphinium indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Bluefield. You should expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Bluefield is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Bluefield you get a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your delphinium if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Bluefield

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Bluefield

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