The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

In West Lafayette you can figure out when it's a good idea to plant garden mums by referring to the USDA zone info.

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 are moderately cold tolerant which tells us that you can plant them a little bit earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant garden mums in West Lafayette 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. Starting your garden mums indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for West Lafayette is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in West Lafayette it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your garden mums in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for West Lafayette

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 West Lafayette

You may be interested in your other planting guides for West Lafayette.