When to Plant Garden Mums in Elk River, MN

The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

By referring to the USDA zone info for Elk River it's a good idea to determine when you can plant garden mums.


Planting Calendar for Garden Mums

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

You can plant garden mums a little bit earlier in the year because they do well in moderate cold.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant garden mums
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant garden mums
Probably not a good time to plant garden mums

The earliest that you can plant garden mums in Elk River 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 garden mums and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your garden mums may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your garden mums indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is May 15 in Elk River. You should expect an average low temperature of -25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Elk River is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Elk River there is a last frost after May 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your garden mums if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Elk River

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)September 15
Lowest Expected Low-25°F
Highest Expected Low-20°F

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

Plants to Grow in Elk River

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Elk River.