One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate 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.

A way of determining when it's a good idea to plant roses is to refer to the USDA zone info for Itasca.

Planting Calendar for Roses

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

You can plant roses a bit earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant roses in Itasca 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 roses and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your roses may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your roses indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Itasca. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Itasca may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Itasca last frost occurs after April 15 so always be ready to protect your roses in the event of one of those late frosts.

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.