One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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.

In Mitchell you can figure out when it's the best time to plant gayfeather by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Gayfeather

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

Gayfeather do well in a bit of cold which means that you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant gayfeather 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 gayfeather and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your gayfeather may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your gayfeather indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Mitchell the average date of last frost happens on May 15. You can expect an average low temperature of -25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Mitchell is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit 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 gayfeather if you have a surprise late frost.

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.