One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the 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 figuring out when it's a good idea to plant marigold is to examine the USDA zone info for Huntersville.

Planting Calendar for Marigold

Frost tolerance for marigold:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

Since marigold require warm weather you need to wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant marigold in Huntersville 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 marigold and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your marigold may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your marigold indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Huntersville. You should expect an average low temperature of 5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Huntersville is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Huntersville you get a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your marigold in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Huntersville

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	5°F
Highest Expected Low	10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 10°F.

Plants to Grow in Huntersville

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