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.

You can estimate when it's possible to plant digitalis in Ankeny by reviewing the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Digitalis

Frost tolerance for digitalis:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Digitalis tend to make it in mild cold which means that you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant digitalis in Ankeny is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant digitalis and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your digitalis may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your digitalis indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Ankeny the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -20°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Ankeny is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Ankeny it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your digitalis if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Ankeny

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 Ankeny

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