One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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.

One way of figuring out when it's possible to plant fanflower is to look at the USDA zone info for Zone 5b.

Planting Calendar for Fanflower

Frost tolerance for fanflower:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

Fanflower do not do well in cold weather which tells us that you must wait until it warms up after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant fanflower in Zone 5b 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 fanflower and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your fanflower may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your fanflower indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Zone 5b. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Zone 5b is not always accurate the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Zone 5b last frost occurs after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your fanflower if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Zone 5b

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 Zone 5b

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Zone 5b.