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.

In Independence you can estimate when it's a good idea to plant monkey flower by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Monkey Flower

Frost tolerance for monkey flower:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

It's probably a bad idea to plant monkey flower until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant monkey flower in Independence 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 monkey flower and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your monkey flower may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your monkey flower indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Independence. You can expect an average low temperature of 15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Independence is an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Independence you get surprised by a frost after March 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your monkey flower if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Independence

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 Independence

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