Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

By checking out the USDA zone info for Rifle it's a good idea to estimate when it's a good idea to plant polka dot plant.

Planting Calendar for Polka Dot Plant

Frost tolerance for polka dot plant:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

Polka Dot Plant require warm weather which means that you must wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant polka dot plant in Rifle 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 polka dot plant and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your polka dot plant may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your polka dot plant indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Rifle. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Rifle is an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Rifle it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your polka dot plant in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Rifle

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 Rifle

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