One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of determining when you can plant matricaria is to use the USDA zone info for Spirit Lake.

Planting Calendar for Matricaria

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

Matricaria are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather which tells us that you can plant them earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant matricaria in Spirit Lake 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. If you wait any later than that and your matricaria may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your matricaria indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Spirit Lake is an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Spirit Lake you get a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your matricaria if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Spirit 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 Spirit Lake

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