One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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.

The first opportunity to plant monarda in Johnstown should be determined by reviewing the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Monarda

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

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

The earliest that you can plant monarda in Johnstown 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 monarda and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your monarda may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your monarda indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Johnstown is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Johnstown last frost occurs after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your monarda if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Johnstown

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 Johnstown

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