One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

By looking at the USDA zone info for Des Moines it's a good idea to figure out when you can plant diascia.

Planting Calendar for Diascia

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

Diascia do well in moderate cold which tells us that you can get them planted earlier than other frost tender plants.

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Des Moines. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Des Moines is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Des Moines you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your diascia in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Des Moines

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 Des Moines

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Des Moines.