One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

By using the USDA zone info for Melbourne it's a good idea to determine when you can plant polygonums.

Planting Calendar for Polygonums

Frost tolerance for polygonums:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

You can not plant polygonums until after the last frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant polygonums in Melbourne 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 polygonums and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your polygonums may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your polygonums indoors.

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.

Remember that USDA zone info for Melbourne is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Melbourne last frost occurs after February 15 be ready to protect your polygonums if you have one of those late frosts.

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.