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 Fort Madison can be looked at to determine when it's the best time to plant fanflower.

Planting Calendar for Fanflower

Frost tolerance for fanflower:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

Since fanflower require warm weather you need to wait until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant fanflower in Fort Madison 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 fanflower and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your fanflower may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your fanflower indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Fort Madison the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Fort Madison 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 Fort Madison it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your fanflower if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Fort Madison

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 Fort Madison

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Fort Madison.