One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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 Forest Lake should be reffered to in order to determine when it's a good idea to plant tropical water plants.

Planting Calendar for Tropical Water Plants

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

Since tropical water plants require warm weather it's necessary to wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant tropical water plants in Forest Lake 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 tropical water plants and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your tropical water plants may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your tropical water plants indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on May 15 in Forest Lake. You can expect an average low temperature of -25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Forest Lake is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Forest Lake it frosts late in the year after May 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your tropical water plants in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Forest Lake

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-25°F
Highest Expected Low	-20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -20°F.

Plants to Grow in Forest Lake

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Forest Lake.