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.

A common way of getting a good idea when it's a good idea to plant cleome is to check out the USDA zone info for Bettendorf.

Planting Calendar for Cleome

Frost tolerance for cleome:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

Since cleome are not cold tolerant you really should wait until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant cleome in Bettendorf 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 cleome and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your cleome may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your cleome indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Bettendorf is not always accurate the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Bettendorf it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your cleome if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Bettendorf

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 Bettendorf

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