Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to determine your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

In Helena you can determine when it's a good idea to plant flax by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Flax

Frost tolerance for flax:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Flax are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather which means that you can get them planted earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant flax in Helena 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 flax and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your flax may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your flax indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Helena the average date of last frost happens on March 15. It might get as low as 10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Helena is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Helena it frosts late in the year after March 15 be ready to protect your flax if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Helena

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 Helena

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