One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

By using the USDA zone info for Mount Sterling it's a good idea to determine when it's possible to plant monarda.

Planting Calendar for Monarda

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

Since monarda do ok in moderate cold you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant monarda in Mount Sterling 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 monarda and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your monarda may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your monarda indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Mount Sterling the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as -5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Mount Sterling is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Mount Sterling you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your monarda in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Mount Sterling

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Mount Sterling

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Mount Sterling.