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 earliest that you can plant dracaena in Iowa City should be figured out by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Dracaena

Frost tolerance for dracaena:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Dracaena are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather which means that you can get them planted much earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant dracaena in Iowa City 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 dracaena and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your dracaena may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your dracaena indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Iowa City. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Iowa City is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Iowa City it frosts late in the year after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your dracaena in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Iowa City

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 Iowa City

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Iowa City.