When to Plant Lavender Cotton in Iowa City, IA

Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

By using the USDA zone info for Iowa City it's a good idea to figure out when you can plant lavender cotton.


Planting Calendar for Lavender Cotton

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

Lavender Cotton can survive in cold weather which means that you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

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

The earliest that you can plant lavender cotton 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 lavender cotton and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your lavender cotton may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your lavender cotton indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Iowa City. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Iowa City is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Iowa City you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your lavender cotton if you have one of those late frosts.

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.