The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of estimating when it's possible to plant melampodium is to check out the USDA zone info for Anchorage.

Planting Calendar for Melampodium

Frost tolerance for melampodium:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

It's probably not a good idea to plant melampodium until after all chance of frost has passed because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant melampodium in Anchorage is May. However, you really should wait until June if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant melampodium and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your melampodium may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your melampodium indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on May 15 in Anchorage. It might get as low as -25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Anchorage is an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Anchorage you get surprised by a frost after May 15 be ready to protect your melampodium if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Anchorage

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-25°F
Highest Expected Low	-20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -20°F.

Plants to Grow in Anchorage

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