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.

A way of figuring out when to plant melampodium is to check out the USDA zone info for Laurel.

Planting Calendar for Melampodium

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

You really shouldn't plant melampodium until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant melampodium in Laurel 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 melampodium and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your melampodium may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your melampodium indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Laurel. You can expect an average low temperature of 0°F in the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Laurel and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Laurel there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your melampodium in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Laurel

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7a.

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

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

Plants to Grow in Laurel

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