When to Plant Begonias in Fort Collins, CO

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the 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 Fort Collins should be used to estimate when to plant begonias.


Planting Calendar for Begonias

Frost tolerance for begonias: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After the last frost.

Begonias require warm weather which means that you really should wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

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

The earliest that you can plant begonias in Fort Collins 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 begonias and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your begonias may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your begonias indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Fort Collins. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Fort Collins is not always accurate the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Fort Collins it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your begonias in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Fort Collins

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 Fort Collins

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Fort Collins.