One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant monkey flower is to look at the USDA zone info for Portland.

Planting Calendar for Monkey Flower

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

You can not plant monkey flower until after the last frost has passed because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant monkey flower in Portland 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. If you are starting your monkey flower indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Portland the average date of last frost happens on March 15. It might get as low as 15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Portland may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Portland you get surprised by a frost after March 15 be ready to cover your monkey flower in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Portland

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 Portland

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