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.

You will be able to determine when it's the best time to plant mimulus by looking at the USDA zone info for New Paltz.

Planting Calendar for Mimulus

Frost tolerance for mimulus:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

It's probably a bad idea to plant mimulus until after the last frost has passed because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant mimulus in New Paltz 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 mimulus and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your mimulus may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your mimulus indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for New Paltz is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in New Paltz you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your mimulus if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for New Paltz

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 New Paltz

You may be interested in your other planting guides for New Paltz.