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.

In Portland you can determine when it's the best time to plant monkey flower by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Monkey Flower

Frost tolerance for monkey flower:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

Monkey Flower require warm weather which tells us that you need to wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant monkey flower in Portland 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 monkey flower and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your monkey flower may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your monkey flower indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Portland. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for Portland and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Portland you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your monkey flower if you have a surprise 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.