One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

In New Iberia you can figure out when it's a good idea to plant matricaria by reviewing the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Matricaria

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

Matricaria are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather which tells us that you can plant them earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant matricaria in New Iberia is January. However, you really should wait until February if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant matricaria and expect a good harvest is probably October. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your matricaria may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your matricaria indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in New Iberia. You can expect an average low temperature of 20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for New Iberia is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in New Iberia it frosts late in the year after February 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your matricaria if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for New Iberia

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	20°F
Highest Expected Low	25°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 25°F.

Plants to Grow in New Iberia

You may be interested in your other planting guides for New Iberia.