One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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 making a decision about when it's the best time to plant melampodium is to use the USDA zone info for East Aurora.

Planting Calendar for Melampodium

Frost tolerance for melampodium:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

It's a bad idea to plant melampodium until after the last frost because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant melampodium in East Aurora is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant melampodium and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your melampodium may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your melampodium indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In East Aurora the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for East Aurora is just an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in East Aurora last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your melampodium in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for East Aurora

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-15°F
Highest Expected Low	-10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in East Aurora

You may be interested in your other planting guides for East Aurora.