One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate 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 Mexia you can determine when it's a good idea to plant melampodium by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Melampodium

Frost tolerance for melampodium:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

Melampodium are not cold tolerant which tells us that you must wait until it warms up after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant melampodium in Mexia is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on March 15 in Mexia. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 10°F.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Mexia is an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Mexia it frosts late in the year after March 15 be ready to cover your melampodium in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Mexia

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 Mexia

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