Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of determining when it's the best time to plant chrysanthemums is to use the USDA zone info for Portales.

Planting Calendar for Chrysanthemums

Frost tolerance for chrysanthemums:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

You can plant chrysanthemums a bit earlier in the year because they do ok in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant chrysanthemums in Portales 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 chrysanthemums and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your chrysanthemums may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your chrysanthemums indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Portales. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 0°F.

Remember that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for Portales and it is different every year. Since half of the time in Portales last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your chrysanthemums if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Portales

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 Portales

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