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.

One way of getting a good idea when it's a good idea to plant creeping zinnia is to use the USDA zone info for Rochester.

Planting Calendar for Creeping Zinnia

Frost tolerance for creeping zinnia:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Since creeping zinnia do ok in moderate cold you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant creeping zinnia in Rochester is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant creeping zinnia and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your creeping zinnia may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your creeping zinnia indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Rochester is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Rochester it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your creeping zinnia in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Rochester

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 Rochester

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