One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of determining when it's a good idea to plant dusty miller is to refer to the USDA zone info for Astoria.

Planting Calendar for Dusty Miller

Frost tolerance for dusty miller:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Dusty Miller do well in cold which tells us that you can get them planted much earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant dusty miller in Astoria 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 dusty miller and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your dusty miller may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your dusty miller indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on March 15 in Astoria. You can expect an average low temperature of 15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Astoria is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Astoria you get a frost after March 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your dusty miller if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Astoria

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°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 20°F.

Plants to Grow in Astoria

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