When to Plant Arabis in Rapid City, SD

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.

You should be able to estimate when you can plant arabis by checking out the USDA zone info for Rapid City.

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Planting Calendar for Arabis

Frost tolerance for arabis: Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant: Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Arabis are very cold tolerant which means that you can start planting them much earlier than more sensitive plants.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant arabis
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant arabis
Probably not a good time to plant arabis

The earliest that you can plant arabis in Rapid City 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 arabis and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your arabis may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your arabis indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Rapid City. You can expect an average low temperature of -20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Rapid City is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Rapid City you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so always be ready to cover your arabis in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Rapid City

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 Rapid City

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Rapid City.