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 USDA zone info for Westchester should be used to figure out when it's a good idea to plant mecardonia.

Planting Calendar for Mecardonia

Frost tolerance for mecardonia:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

Mecardonia do not do well in cold weather which means that you have to wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant mecardonia in Westchester 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 mecardonia and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your mecardonia may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your mecardonia indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Westchester is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Westchester it frosts late in the year after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your mecardonia if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Westchester

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 Westchester

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