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.

You can determine when it's possible to plant phlox in Ankeny by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Phlox

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

Phlox are moderately cold tolerant which means that you can plant them a little bit earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant phlox 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 phlox and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your phlox may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your phlox indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Ankeny. You can expect an average low temperature of -20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Ankeny is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Ankeny there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your phlox in the event of 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.