One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

By looking at the USDA zone info for Winterset it's a good idea to estimate when it's the best time to plant liatris.

Planting Calendar for Liatris

Frost tolerance for liatris:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Liatris tend to make it in pretty solid cold which means that you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant liatris in Winterset 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 liatris and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your liatris may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your liatris indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Winterset is just an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Winterset it frosts late in the year after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your liatris if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Winterset

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 Winterset

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