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.

A common way of estimating when you can plant dusty miller is to use the USDA zone info for Alexander City.

Planting Calendar for Dusty Miller

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

Since dusty miller do well in cold you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant dusty miller in Alexander City is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

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

Last Frost Date

In Alexander City the average date of last frost happens on March 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Alexander City is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Alexander City you get a frost after March 15 be ready to cover your dusty miller if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Alexander City

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Alexander City

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Alexander City.