One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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.

In Marion you can determine when it's the best time to plant centaurea by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Centaurea

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

Centaurea are moderately cold tolerant which tells us that you can get them planted earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant centaurea in Marion 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 centaurea and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your centaurea may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your centaurea indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Marion. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -20°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Marion may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Marion you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your centaurea if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Marion

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 Marion

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