The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of figuring out when it's the best time to plant melampodium is to refer to the USDA zone info for Clear Lake.

Planting Calendar for Melampodium

Frost tolerance for melampodium:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

It's probably not a good idea to plant melampodium until after the last frost because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant melampodium in Clear Lake is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant melampodium and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your melampodium may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your melampodium indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Clear Lake. It might get as low as -20°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Clear Lake may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Clear Lake it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your melampodium if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Clear Lake

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Clear Lake

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Clear Lake.