The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of figuring out when you can plant coleus is to use the USDA zone info for Storm Lake.

Planting Calendar for Coleus

Frost tolerance for coleus:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

It's probably a bad idea to plant coleus until after the last frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant coleus in Storm Lake is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant coleus and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your coleus may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your coleus indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Storm Lake is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Storm Lake you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your coleus if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Storm Lake

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 Storm Lake

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Storm Lake.