One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of getting a good idea when to plant lavender is to refer to the USDA zone info for Marion.

Planting Calendar for Lavender

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

Lavender do ok in moderate cold which means that you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant lavender in Marion 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 lavender and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your lavender may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your lavender indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Marion and it is different every year. Since half of the time in Marion it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your lavender if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Marion

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 Marion

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