One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

It's possible to estimate when it's a good idea to plant matricaria by reviewing the USDA zone info for East Chicago.

Planting Calendar for Matricaria

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

Matricaria do ok in a little bit of cold which means that you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant matricaria in East Chicago 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 really do well. If you are starting your matricaria indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in East Chicago. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for East Chicago is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in East Chicago there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to cover your matricaria in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for East Chicago

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 East Chicago

You may be interested in your other planting guides for East Chicago.