One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

In Cedar Rapids you can determine when it's possible to plant verbena by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Verbena

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

You can plant verbena slightly earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant verbena in Cedar Rapids 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 verbena and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your verbena may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your verbena indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Cedar Rapids. 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 Cedar Rapids is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Cedar Rapids there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your verbena 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.