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.

You should be able to figure out when it's a good idea to plant melampodium by checking out the USDA zone info for Olney.

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 require warm weather which tells us that it is important to wait until it warms up after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant melampodium in Olney 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your melampodium may not have a chance to grow to maturity. 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 Olney. You should expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Olney is not always accurate the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Olney there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your melampodium if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Olney

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-10°F
Highest Expected Low	-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Olney

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