One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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 maltese cross is to check out the USDA zone info for Pella.

Planting Calendar for Maltese Cross

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

Maltese Cross are moderately cold tolerant which means that you can get them planted earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant maltese cross in Pella 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 maltese cross and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your maltese cross may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your maltese cross indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Pella. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Pella is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Pella you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your maltese cross in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Pella

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 Pella

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