One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

You will be able to figure out when to plant monarda by checking out the USDA zone info for North Charleston.

Planting Calendar for Monarda

Frost tolerance for monarda:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Monarda do ok in very little cold which means that you can plant them just a tiny bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant monarda in North Charleston is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

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

Last Frost Date

In North Charleston the average date of last frost happens on March 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for North Charleston is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in North Charleston you get surprised by a frost after March 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your monarda in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for North Charleston

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 North Charleston

You may be interested in your other planting guides for North Charleston.