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.

It's a good idea to determine when it's possible to plant chocolate daisy by looking at the USDA zone info for Ames.

Planting Calendar for Chocolate Daisy

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

Chocolate Daisy tend to make it in some cold which tells us that you can plant them just a tiny bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant chocolate daisy 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 chocolate daisy and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your chocolate daisy may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your chocolate daisy indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Ames. It might get as low as -20°F during the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that the actual date of last frost may not be accurate from year to year because it is based on the USDA zone info for Ames and it will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Ames it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your chocolate daisy in the event of one of those late frosts.

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.