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.

In Mentor you can determine when you can plant bellis by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Bellis

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

Since bellis are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant bellis in Mentor 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 bellis and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your bellis may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your bellis indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Mentor. You should expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Mentor 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 Mentor you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your bellis in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Mentor

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°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 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Mentor

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