One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out 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 way of figuring out when it's the best time to plant garden mums is to refer to the USDA zone info for Fort Lee.

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 do well in a little bit of cold which tells us that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant garden mums in Fort Lee is February. However, you really should wait until March 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 September. If you wait any later than that and your garden mums may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your garden mums indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Fort Lee. It might get as low as 0°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Fort Lee is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Fort Lee there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to cover your garden mums in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Fort Lee

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	0°F
Highest Expected Low	5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 0°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 5°F.

Plants to Grow in Fort Lee

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Fort Lee.