One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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 first chance to plant nierembergia in Portage can be figured out by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Nierembergia

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

You can not plant nierembergia until after all chance of frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant nierembergia in Portage 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 nierembergia and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your nierembergia may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your nierembergia indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Portage. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Portage is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Portage you get a frost after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your nierembergia in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Portage

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 Portage

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