One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

A common way of determining when to plant bougainvillea is to check out the USDA zone info for Merrillville.

Planting Calendar for Bougainvillea

Frost tolerance for bougainvillea:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

You should not plant bougainvillea until after the last frost because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant bougainvillea in Merrillville 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 bougainvillea and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your bougainvillea may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your bougainvillea indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Always keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Merrillville and it changes from year to year. Half of the time in Merrillville it frosts late in the year after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your bougainvillea if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Merrillville

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 Merrillville

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