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.

The USDA zone info for Sussex should be reviewed to figure out when you can plant mimulus.

Planting Calendar for Mimulus

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

It's a bad idea to plant mimulus until after all chance of frost has passed because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant mimulus in Sussex 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 really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your mimulus indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Sussex. It might get as low as -20°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Sussex is not always accurate the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Sussex you get a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your mimulus if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Sussex

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 Sussex

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