When to Plant Flower-of-an-Hour in Portland, ME

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

By checking out the USDA zone info for Portland you will be able to figure out when it's the best time to plant flower-of-an-hour.


Planting Calendar for Flower-of-an-Hour

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

You can plant flower-of-an-hour just a tiny bit earlier in the year because they are barely cold tolerant.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant flower-of-an-hour
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant flower-of-an-hour
Probably not a good time to plant flower-of-an-hour

The earliest that you can plant flower-of-an-hour in Portland 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 flower-of-an-hour and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your flower-of-an-hour may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your flower-of-an-hour indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Portland. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Portland may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Portland it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your flower-of-an-hour in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Portland

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 Portland

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