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 first chance to plant pentas in Storm Lake should be figured out by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Pentas

Frost tolerance for pentas:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

It's a bad idea to plant pentas until after the last frost because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant pentas 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 pentas and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your pentas may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your pentas indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Storm Lake may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Storm Lake it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your pentas in the event of a 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.