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.

By checking out the USDA zone info for Merrill it's a good idea to determine when it's possible to plant bougainvillea.

Planting Calendar for Bougainvillea

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

You really shouldn't plant bougainvillea until after the last frost because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant bougainvillea in Merrill is May. However, you really should wait until June if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant bougainvillea and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your bougainvillea may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your bougainvillea indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on May 15 in Merrill. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -30°F.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Merrill is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Merrill it frosts late in the year after May 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your bougainvillea 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.