One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

The USDA zone info for Rochester should be read to estimate when it's the best time to plant garden mums.

Planting Calendar for Garden Mums

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

Garden Mums do ok in moderate cold which means that you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant garden mums in Rochester 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 garden mums and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your garden mums may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your garden mums indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Rochester the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as -10°F during the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Rochester is just an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Rochester there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your garden mums if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Rochester

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-10°F
Highest Expected Low	-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Rochester

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Rochester.