When to Plant Gayfeather in Zone 2a

The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of determining when it's a good idea to plant gayfeather is to look at the USDA zone info for Zone 2a.


Planting Calendar for Gayfeather

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

Gayfeather are very cold tolerant which means that you can plant them a quite a bit earlier than more sensitive plants.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant gayfeather
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant gayfeather
Probably not a good time to plant gayfeather

The earliest that you can plant gayfeather 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 gayfeather and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your gayfeather may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your gayfeather indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on May 15 in Zone 2a. You can expect an average low temperature of -50°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Zone 2a may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Zone 2a last frost occurs after May 15 be ready to protect your gayfeather in the event of a late frost.

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.