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

One way of making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant fountain grass is to check out the USDA zone info for Itasca.

Planting Calendar for Fountain Grass

Frost tolerance for fountain grass:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

You can plant fountain grass just a tiny bit earlier in the year because they are barely cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant fountain grass in Itasca is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant fountain grass and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your fountain grass may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your fountain grass indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Itasca. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Itasca is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Itasca it frosts late in the year after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your fountain grass 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.