One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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 Indianapolis can be reviewed to figure out when you can plant garden mums.

Planting Calendar for Garden Mums

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

Garden Mums do well in moderate cold which means that you can plant them a little bit earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant garden mums in Indianapolis 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 garden mums and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your garden mums may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your garden mums indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Indianapolis. It might get as low as -10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Indianapolis is just an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Indianapolis you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so always be ready to protect your garden mums in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Indianapolis

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 Indianapolis

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