One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

A common way of getting a good idea when to plant pincushion flower is to examine the USDA zone info for Iowa City.

Planting Calendar for Pincushion Flower

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

Pincushion Flower do well in mild cold which means that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant pincushion flower 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 pincushion flower and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your pincushion flower may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your pincushion flower indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Iowa City is an average the actual date of last frost changes 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 pincushion flower if you have a surprise 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.