One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

The USDA zone info for Alpine should be reviewed to determine when it's a good idea to plant mecardonia.

Planting Calendar for Mecardonia

Frost tolerance for mecardonia:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

Since mecardonia require warm weather it is necessary to wait until after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant mecardonia in Alpine 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 mecardonia and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your mecardonia may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your mecardonia indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Alpine the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You should expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Alpine may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Alpine there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your mecardonia if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Alpine

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°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 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Alpine

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