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.

A common way of determining when it's the best time to plant strawflowers is to check out the USDA zone info for Smithville.

Planting Calendar for Strawflowers

Frost tolerance for strawflowers:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Strawflowers are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather which tells us that you can get them planted just a bit earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant strawflowers in Smithville is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant strawflowers and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your strawflowers may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your strawflowers indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Smithville is just an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Smithville there is a last frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your strawflowers if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Smithville

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 Smithville

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