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.

You should be able to estimate when you can plant garden mums by referring to the USDA zone info for La Crescent.

Planting Calendar for Garden Mums

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

Garden Mums are moderately cold tolerant which tells us that you can start planting them earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant garden mums in La Crescent 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your garden mums may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your garden mums indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on May 15 in La Crescent. It might get as low as -25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for La Crescent 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 La Crescent you get a frost after May 15 be ready to cover your garden mums if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for La Crescent

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 La Crescent

You may be interested in your other planting guides for La Crescent.