One of the first steps you take when you are estimating your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of making a decision about when to plant garden mums is to use the USDA zone info for Laurel.

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 one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather which tells us that you can plant them a little bit earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant garden mums in Laurel 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. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your garden mums indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on May 15 in Laurel. It might get as low as -25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Laurel is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Laurel it frosts late in the year after May 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your garden mums in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Laurel

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 Laurel

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