One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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.

A common way of determining when it's a good idea to plant chrysanthemum is to check out the USDA zone info for Erie.

Planting Calendar for Chrysanthemum

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

You can not plant chrysanthemum 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 chrysanthemum in Erie 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 chrysanthemum and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your chrysanthemum may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your chrysanthemum indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Erie is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Erie it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your chrysanthemum if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Erie

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 Erie

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