Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Ishpeming should be used to determine when it's the best time to plant elephant ears.

Planting Calendar for Elephant Ears

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

Elephant Ears do not do well in cold weather which means that you really should wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant elephant ears in Ishpeming is May. However, you really should wait until June if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant elephant ears and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your elephant ears may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your elephant ears 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 May 15 in Ishpeming. It might get as low as -25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Ishpeming is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Ishpeming it frosts late in the year after May 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your elephant ears in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Ishpeming

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-25°F
Highest Expected Low	-20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -20°F.

Plants to Grow in Ishpeming

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