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.

In Hondo you can figure out when it's possible to plant matricaria by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Matricaria

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

Matricaria do ok in some cold which tells us that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant matricaria in Hondo 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 matricaria and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your matricaria may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your matricaria indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Hondo. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Hondo may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Hondo it frosts late in the year after March 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your matricaria in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Hondo

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 Hondo

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