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

A common way of determining when it's a good idea to plant iberis is to look at the USDA zone info for Ishpeming.

Planting Calendar for Iberis

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

You can plant iberis just a bit earlier in the year because they do well in moderate cold.

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

The last month that you can plant iberis and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your iberis may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your iberis 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. You should expect an average low temperature of -25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Ishpeming and it changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Ishpeming you get surprised by a frost after May 15 be ready to protect your iberis in the event of a surprise late frost.

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.