One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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.

It's a good idea to figure out when you can plant garden mums by looking at the USDA zone info for Dayton.

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 can survive in a little bit of cold which means that you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant garden mums in Dayton 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 grow to maturity. If you are starting your garden mums indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Dayton may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Dayton last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your garden mums if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Dayton

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 Dayton

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