One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant mecardonia is to consult the USDA zone info for Surprise.

Planting Calendar for Mecardonia

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

You should not plant mecardonia until after the last frost has passed because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant mecardonia in Surprise is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant mecardonia and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your mecardonia may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your mecardonia indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on February 15 in Surprise. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Surprise is not always accurate the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Surprise last frost occurs after February 15 be ready to protect your mecardonia in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Surprise

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	25°F
Highest Expected Low	30°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 30°F.

Plants to Grow in Surprise

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