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.

By checking out the USDA zone info for Elkins you will be able to estimate when to plant gayfeather.

Planting Calendar for Gayfeather

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

Since gayfeather are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather you can plant them much earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant gayfeather in Elkins 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 gayfeather and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your gayfeather may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your gayfeather indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Elkins. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Elkins is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Elkins you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your gayfeather if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Elkins

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-15°F
Highest Expected Low	-10°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 -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Elkins

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