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.

A way of estimating when it's the best time to plant garden mums is to check out the USDA zone info for Chino Valley.

Planting Calendar for Garden Mums

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

Garden Mums tend to make it in some cold which tells us that you can plant them a little earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant garden mums in Chino Valley 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 garden mums and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your garden mums may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your garden mums indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Chino Valley. You can expect an average low temperature of 5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Chino Valley is an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Chino Valley there is a last frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your garden mums in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Chino Valley

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	5°F
Highest Expected Low	10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 10°F.

Plants to Grow in Chino Valley

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Chino Valley.