One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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.

In Ames you can determine when it's possible to plant bleeding hearts by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Bleeding Hearts

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

Bleeding Hearts do ok in a tiny bit of cold which means that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant bleeding hearts in Ames 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 bleeding hearts and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your bleeding hearts may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your bleeding hearts 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 when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Ames. It might get as low as -20°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Ames is not always accurate the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Ames you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your bleeding hearts if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Ames

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 Ames

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