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.

A common way of getting a good idea when to plant elephant ears is to use the USDA zone info for Waterville.

Planting Calendar for Elephant Ears

Frost tolerance for elephant ears:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

Elephant Ears are not cold tolerant which means that it is necessary to wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant elephant ears in Waterville 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 elephant ears and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your elephant ears may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your elephant ears indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Waterville. You should expect an average low temperature of -20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Waterville may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Waterville it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your elephant ears if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Waterville

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Waterville

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