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.

A common way of figuring out when to plant flowering maple is to look at the USDA zone info for Big Rapids.

Planting Calendar for Flowering Maple

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

You can not plant flowering maple until after all chance of frost has passed because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant flowering maple in Big Rapids 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 flowering maple and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your flowering maple may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your flowering maple 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 when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Big Rapids. You should expect an average low temperature of -20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Big Rapids is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Big Rapids there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your flowering maple in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Big Rapids

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 Big Rapids

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Big Rapids.