The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of estimating when you can plant monarda is to look at the USDA zone info for Sweetwater.

Planting Calendar for Monarda

Frost tolerance for monarda:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Monarda can survive in very little 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 monarda in Sweetwater 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 monarda and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your monarda may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your monarda indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Sweetwater. It might get as low as 5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Sweetwater may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Sweetwater there is a last frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your monarda in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Sweetwater

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	5°F
Highest Expected Low	10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 10°F.

Plants to Grow in Sweetwater

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