One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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 Benton Harbor you can figure out when you can plant purple bell vines by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Purple Bell Vines

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

Purple Bell Vines do ok in moderate cold which means that you can plant them slightly earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant purple bell vines in Benton Harbor 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 purple bell vines and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your purple bell vines may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your purple bell vines indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Benton Harbor the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as -5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Benton Harbor is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Benton Harbor you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your purple bell vines in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Benton Harbor

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Benton Harbor

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Benton Harbor.