One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

In Melbourne you can figure out when it's possible to plant garden mums by referring to the USDA zone info.

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 do well in moderate cold you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant garden mums in Melbourne is January. However, you really should wait until February 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 October. If you wait any later than that and your garden mums may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your garden mums indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Melbourne. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost may not be accurate from year to year because it is based on the USDA zone info for Melbourne and it is different every year. Half of the time in Melbourne last frost occurs after February 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your garden mums in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Melbourne

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 Melbourne

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