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 Shelby you can determine when it's a good idea to plant marigold by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Marigold

Frost tolerance for marigold:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

Marigold are not cold tolerant which means that it is necessary to wait until it warms up after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant marigold in Shelby 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 marigold and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your marigold may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your marigold indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Shelby. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Shelby is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Shelby it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your marigold in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Shelby

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 Shelby

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