One of the first steps you take when you are estimating your gardening schedule is find your 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 getting a good idea when it's a good idea to plant lunaria is to consult the USDA zone info for Portales.

Planting Calendar for Lunaria

Frost tolerance for lunaria:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Lunaria do well in moderate cold which tells us that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant lunaria in Portales 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 lunaria and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your lunaria may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your lunaria indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Portales is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Portales it frosts late in the year after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your lunaria 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.