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.

A common way of figuring out when you can plant copperleaf is to look at the USDA zone info for Fort Collins.

Planting Calendar for Copperleaf

Frost tolerance for copperleaf:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

It's probably not a good idea to plant copperleaf until after all chance of frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant copperleaf 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 copperleaf and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your copperleaf may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your copperleaf indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Fort Collins may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Fort Collins last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your copperleaf in the event of a surprise late frost.

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.