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.

A common way of making a decision about when you can plant mimulus is to consult the USDA zone info for Rutland.

Planting Calendar for Mimulus

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

Since mimulus are not cold tolerant it's important to wait until after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant mimulus in Rutland 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 mimulus and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your mimulus may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your mimulus indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Rutland. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -20°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Rutland is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Rutland you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your mimulus in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Rutland

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Rutland

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