One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Cedar Rapids should be reffered to in order to estimate when it's the best time to plant firebush.

Planting Calendar for Firebush

Frost tolerance for firebush:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

You really shouldn't plant firebush until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant firebush in Cedar Rapids 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 firebush and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your firebush may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your firebush indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Cedar Rapids. It might get as low as -20°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Cedar Rapids may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Cedar Rapids there is a last frost after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your firebush if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Cedar Rapids

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 Cedar Rapids

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Cedar Rapids.