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

The best time to plant cosmos in Cedar Lake should be estimated by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Cosmos

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

You can plant cosmos slightly earlier in the year because they do ok in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant cosmos in Cedar Lake 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 cosmos and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your cosmos may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your cosmos indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Cedar Lake. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Cedar Lake may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Cedar Lake you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your cosmos if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Cedar Lake

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 Cedar Lake

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Cedar Lake.