One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant mimulus is to look at the USDA zone info for Fruitland.

Planting Calendar for Mimulus

Frost tolerance for mimulus:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

Mimulus are not cold tolerant which tells us that you must wait until it warms up after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant mimulus in Fruitland 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 mimulus and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your mimulus may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your mimulus indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Fruitland. You can expect an average low temperature of 5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Fruitland is not always accurate the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Fruitland it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your mimulus if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Fruitland

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	5°F
Highest Expected Low	10°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 10°F.

Plants to Grow in Fruitland

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