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.

The USDA zone info for Preston should be read to estimate when it's possible to plant melampodium.

Planting Calendar for Melampodium

Frost tolerance for melampodium:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

Melampodium are not cold tolerant which tells us that it is important to wait until it warms up after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant melampodium in Preston is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant melampodium and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your melampodium may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your melampodium indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Preston is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Preston you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your melampodium in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Preston

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 Preston

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