One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

It's a good idea to figure out when to plant four-o-clock flower by using the USDA zone info for West Des Moines.

Planting Calendar for Four-o-clock flower

Frost tolerance for four-o-clock flower:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

You should not plant four-o-clock flower until after all chance of frost has passed because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant four-o-clock flower in West Des Moines 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 four-o-clock flower and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your four-o-clock flower may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your four-o-clock flower indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

In West Des Moines 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 West Des Moines is not always accurate the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in West Des Moines it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your four-o-clock flower in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for West Des Moines

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 West Des Moines

You may be interested in your other planting guides for West Des Moines.