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.

The earliest that you can plant platycodon in Iowa City can be figured out by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Platycodon

Frost tolerance for platycodon:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Platycodon do ok in very little cold which means that you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant platycodon in Iowa City is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant platycodon and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your platycodon may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your platycodon 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.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Iowa City is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Iowa City there is a last frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your platycodon in the event of 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.