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.

One way of estimating when it's the best time to plant coreopsis is to look at the USDA zone info for Muscatine.

Planting Calendar for Coreopsis

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

Coreopsis can survive in some cold which tells us that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant coreopsis in Muscatine 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 coreopsis and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your coreopsis may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your coreopsis indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Muscatine. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Muscatine is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Muscatine there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to cover your coreopsis if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Muscatine

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 Muscatine

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Muscatine.