One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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 determining when you can plant artemesia is to examine the USDA zone info for Rio Rancho.

Planting Calendar for Artemesia

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

Artemesia do well in some 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 artemesia in Rio Rancho 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 artemesia and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your artemesia may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your artemesia indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Rio Rancho. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 5°F.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Rio Rancho is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Rio Rancho you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your artemesia if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Rio Rancho

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 Rio Rancho

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Rio Rancho.