Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. 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 a good idea to plant four-o-clock flower is to look at the USDA zone info for Alpena.

Planting Calendar for Four-o-clock flower

Frost tolerance for four-o-clock flower:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

Four-o-clock flower do not do well in cold weather which means that it is important to wait until it warms up after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant four-o-clock flower in Alpena 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 four-o-clock flower and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your four-o-clock flower may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your four-o-clock flower indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Alpena may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Alpena last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your four-o-clock flower in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Alpena

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 Alpena

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