When to Plant Lupine in Clear Lake, IA

The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

By checking out the USDA zone info for Clear Lake it's a good idea to figure out when you can plant lupine.


Planting Calendar for Lupine

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

Since lupine do well in moderate cold you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant lupine
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant lupine
Probably not a good time to plant lupine

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

Last Frost Date

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

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Clear Lake is just an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Clear Lake there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to cover your lupine if you have a 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.