One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out your gardening schedule is find your 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.

You will be able to estimate when you can plant garden mums by looking at the USDA zone info for Abilene.

Planting Calendar for Garden Mums

Frost tolerance for garden mums:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Garden Mums are moderately cold tolerant which tells us that you can plant them a little bit earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant garden mums in Abilene is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant garden mums and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your garden mums may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your garden mums indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on March 15 in Abilene. It might get as low as 10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Abilene is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Abilene you get surprised by a frost after March 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your garden mums in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Abilene

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Abilene

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