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.

In West Lafayette you can determine when it's a good idea to plant verbena by reviewing the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Verbena

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

Since verbena are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant verbena in West Lafayette 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 verbena and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your verbena may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your verbena indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for West Lafayette is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in West Lafayette it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your verbena in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for West Lafayette

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 West Lafayette

You may be interested in your other planting guides for West Lafayette.