One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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.

By checking out the USDA zone info for Portales you should be able to figure out when it's the best time to plant creeping zinnia.

Planting Calendar for Creeping Zinnia

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

Since creeping zinnia do ok in moderate cold you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Portales. It might get as low as 0°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Portales is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Portales there is a last frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your creeping zinnia if you have a late frost.

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.