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.

In Sioux City you can determine when you can plant bee balm by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Bee Balm

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

You can plant bee balm slightly earlier in the year because they are barely cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant bee balm in Sioux 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 bee balm and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your bee balm may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your bee balm indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Sioux City. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -20°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Sioux City 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 Sioux City you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your bee balm in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Sioux City

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 Sioux City

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Sioux City.