One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of determining when to plant columbine is to look at the USDA zone info for Zone 2a.

Planting Calendar for Columbine

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

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

The earliest that you can plant columbine in Zone 2a is April. However, you really should wait until May 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. If you wait any later than that and your columbine may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your columbine indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Zone 2a the average date of last frost happens on May 15. It might get as low as -50°F during the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Zone 2a is just an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Zone 2a there is a last frost after May 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your columbine if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Zone 2a

Here is the info for USDA Zone 2a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	August 15
Lowest Expected Low	-50°F
Highest Expected Low	-45°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -50°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -45°F.

Plants to Grow in Zone 2a

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Zone 2a.