One of the first steps you take when you are estimating your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant cosmos is to look at the USDA zone info for Kokomo.

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.

Cosmos are barely cold tolerant which means that you can plant them slightly earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant cosmos in Kokomo 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. If you wait any later than that and your cosmos may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your cosmos indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Kokomo. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Kokomo may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Kokomo there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to cover your cosmos if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Kokomo

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 Kokomo

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