Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of making a decision about when you can plant phlox is to use the USDA zone info for Medical Lake.

Planting Calendar for Phlox

Frost tolerance for phlox:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

You can plant phlox a little earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant phlox in Medical Lake is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant phlox and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your phlox may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your phlox indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Medical Lake. You should expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Medical Lake is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Medical Lake it frosts late in the year after April 15 so always be ready to protect your phlox if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Medical Lake

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

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

Plants to Grow in Medical Lake

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Medical Lake.