Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

It's a good idea to estimate when you can plant monarda by referring to the USDA zone info for Staunton.

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.

You can plant monarda a bit earlier in the year because they are barely cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant monarda in Staunton 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. If you wait any later than that and your monarda may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your monarda indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Staunton. You should expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Staunton is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Staunton last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your monarda if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Staunton

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 Staunton

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