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.

By checking out the USDA zone info for Vail you should be able to determine when it's a good idea to plant garden mums.

Planting Calendar for Garden Mums

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

Since garden mums are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant garden mums in Vail 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 garden mums and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your garden mums may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your garden mums indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Vail the average date of last frost happens on May 15. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -25°F.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Vail is just an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Vail you get a frost after May 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your garden mums in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Vail

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-25°F
Highest Expected Low	-20°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 -20°F.

Plants to Grow in Vail

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