One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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 common way of getting a good idea when it's a good idea to plant monkey flower is to check out the USDA zone info for Virginia.

Planting Calendar for Monkey Flower

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

It's a bad idea to plant monkey flower until after the last frost because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant monkey flower in Virginia is May. However, you really should wait until June 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. Any later than that and your monkey flower may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your monkey flower indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is May 15 in Virginia. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -35°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Virginia is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Virginia it frosts late in the year after May 15 so always be ready to cover your monkey flower if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Virginia

Here is the info for USDA Zone 3b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-35°F
Highest Expected Low	-30°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -35°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -30°F.

Plants to Grow in Virginia

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