One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

A way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant bachelor buttons is to use the USDA zone info for Waukee.

Planting Calendar for Bachelor Buttons

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

Bachelor Buttons are moderately cold tolerant which means that you can plant them earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant bachelor buttons in Waukee 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 bachelor buttons and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your bachelor buttons may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your bachelor buttons indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Waukee the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as -20°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Waukee is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Waukee you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your bachelor buttons if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Waukee

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 Waukee

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