The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

In Itasca you can estimate when it's possible to plant cuphea by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Cuphea

Frost tolerance for cuphea:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

It's not a good idea to plant cuphea until after all chance of frost has passed because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant cuphea in Itasca 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 cuphea and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your cuphea may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your cuphea indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Itasca. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Itasca is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Itasca there is a last frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your cuphea if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Itasca

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-15°F
Highest Expected Low	-10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Itasca

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