One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out 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.

In Aspen you can determine when it's the best time to plant matricaria by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Matricaria

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

You can plant matricaria a bit earlier in the year because they do well in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant matricaria in Aspen 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 matricaria and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your matricaria may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your matricaria indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Aspen the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Aspen is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Aspen there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your matricaria if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Aspen

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

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

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

Plants to Grow in Aspen

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