One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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.

A common way of determining when it's a good idea to plant matricaria is to look at the USDA zone info for Council Bluffs.

Planting Calendar for Matricaria

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

Matricaria do well in moderate cold which means that you can get them planted earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant matricaria in Council Bluffs is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant matricaria and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your matricaria may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your matricaria indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Council Bluffs the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Council Bluffs may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Council Bluffs it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your matricaria if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Council Bluffs

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 Council Bluffs

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Council Bluffs.