One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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.

One way of figuring out when it's the best time to plant sunflowers is to refer to the USDA zone info for Monroe.

Planting Calendar for Sunflowers

Frost tolerance for sunflowers:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

Since sunflowers are not cold tolerant it is necessary to wait until after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant sunflowers in Monroe 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 sunflowers and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your sunflowers may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your sunflowers indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Monroe. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -20°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Monroe may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Monroe it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your sunflowers if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Monroe

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 Monroe

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