The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of figuring out when it's a good idea to plant aurinia is to use the USDA zone info for Dowagiac.

Planting Calendar for Aurinia

Frost tolerance for aurinia:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

You can plant aurinia a lot earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant aurinia 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 aurinia and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your aurinia may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your aurinia indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Dowagiac. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Dowagiac is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Dowagiac last frost occurs after April 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your aurinia in the event of 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.