One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of figuring out when it's possible to plant garden mums is to look at the USDA zone info for Zone 5b.

Planting Calendar for Garden Mums

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

Garden Mums do well in moderate cold which tells us that you can get them planted earlier than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant garden mums in Zone 5b 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 garden mums and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your garden mums may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your garden mums indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Zone 5b. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Zone 5b is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Zone 5b last frost occurs after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your garden mums in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Zone 5b

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

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

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Zone 5b

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Zone 5b.