One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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 figuring out when you can plant copperleaf is to use the USDA zone info for Dowagiac.

Planting Calendar for Copperleaf

Frost tolerance for copperleaf:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

Copperleaf require warm weather which means that you need to wait until it warms up after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant copperleaf in Dowagiac 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 copperleaf and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your copperleaf may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your copperleaf indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Dowagiac. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Dowagiac and it changes from year to year. Half of the time in Dowagiac it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your copperleaf 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.