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.

A common way of determining when it's the best time to plant bower vine is to use the USDA zone info for Winthrop Harbor.

Planting Calendar for Bower Vine

Frost tolerance for bower vine:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

Since bower vine are not cold tolerant it is important to wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant bower vine in Winthrop Harbor 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 bower vine and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your bower vine may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your bower vine indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Winthrop Harbor and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Winthrop Harbor you get a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your bower vine if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Winthrop Harbor

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 Winthrop Harbor

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Winthrop Harbor.