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 way of getting a good idea when you can plant alstromeria is to check out the USDA zone info for Dowagiac.

Planting Calendar for Alstromeria

Frost tolerance for alstromeria:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Since alstromeria do well in moderate cold you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant alstromeria in Dowagiac is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant alstromeria and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your alstromeria may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your alstromeria indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Dowagiac. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Dowagiac is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Dowagiac last frost occurs after April 15 so always be ready to protect your alstromeria if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Dowagiac

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 Dowagiac

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