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 Aspen you can determine when to plant monarda by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Monarda

Frost tolerance for monarda:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Monarda can survive in a tiny bit of cold which means that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant monarda in Aspen 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 monarda and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your monarda may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your monarda indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Aspen. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Remember that USDA zone info for Aspen is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Aspen you get a frost after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your monarda in the event of 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.