One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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 USDA zone info for Le Mars can be used to determine when it's possible to plant gayfeather.

Planting Calendar for Gayfeather

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

Since gayfeather are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant gayfeather in Le Mars 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 gayfeather and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your gayfeather may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your gayfeather indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Le Mars. You can expect an average low temperature of -20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Le Mars is just an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Le Mars you get a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your gayfeather if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Le Mars

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Le Mars

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Le Mars.