When to Plant Creeping Phlox in Mitchell, SD

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the 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.

The USDA zone info for Mitchell should be reffered to in order to determine when it's possible to plant creeping phlox.


Planting Calendar for Creeping Phlox

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

Since creeping phlox are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant creeping phlox
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant creeping phlox
Probably not a good time to plant creeping phlox

The earliest that you can plant creeping phlox in Mitchell 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 creeping phlox and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your creeping phlox may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your creeping phlox indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on May 15 in Mitchell. You should expect an average low temperature of -25°F in the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Mitchell and it will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Mitchell it frosts late in the year after May 15 be ready to protect your creeping phlox if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Mitchell

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)September 15
Lowest Expected Low-25°F
Highest Expected Low-20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -20°F.

Plants to Grow in Mitchell

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