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.

The USDA zone info for Marion should be reffered to in order to figure out when it's the best time to plant primula.

Planting Calendar for Primula

Frost tolerance for primula:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Primula do ok in pretty solid cold which means that you can plant them a lot earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

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

Last Frost Date

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

Remember that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for Marion and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Marion it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your primula in the event of a late frost.

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.