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.

The USDA zone info for Clear Lake can be reffered to in order to determine when you can plant four o' clock.

Planting Calendar for Four O' Clock

Frost tolerance for four o' clock:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

You can not plant four o' clock until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant four o' clock in Clear Lake 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 four o' clock and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your four o' clock may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your four o' clock indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Clear Lake the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as -20°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Clear Lake is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Clear Lake you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your four o' clock in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Clear Lake

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 Clear Lake

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Clear Lake.