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When to Plant Tropical Water Plants in Waterloo, IA

Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of determining when it's a good idea to plant tropical water plants is to examine the USDA zone info for Waterloo.


Planting Calendar for Tropical Water Plants

Frost tolerance for tropical water plants: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

Tropical Water Plants are not cold tolerant which tells us that you really should wait until it warms up after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant tropical water plants
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant tropical water plants
Probably not a good time to plant tropical water plants

The earliest that you can plant tropical water plants in Waterloo 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 tropical water plants and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your tropical water plants may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your tropical water plants indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Waterloo. You should expect an average low temperature of -20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Waterloo is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Waterloo it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your tropical water plants in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Waterloo

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 Waterloo

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