One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the 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 estimating when it's possible to plant aubretia is to use the USDA zone info for Merrill.

Planting Calendar for Aubretia

Frost tolerance for aubretia:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Aubretia are very cold tolerant which tells us that you can start planting them much earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant aubretia in Merrill 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 aubretia and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your aubretia may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your aubretia indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on May 15 in Merrill. It might get as low as -30°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Merrill is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Merrill you get surprised by a frost after May 15 be ready to cover your aubretia if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Merrill

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-30°F
Highest Expected Low	-25°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -30°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -25°F.

Plants to Grow in Merrill

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