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.

You should be able to determine when it's a good idea to plant strawflowers by looking at the USDA zone info for Manistee.

Planting Calendar for Strawflowers

Frost tolerance for strawflowers:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Since strawflowers do ok in moderate cold you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant strawflowers in Manistee 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 strawflowers and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your strawflowers may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your strawflowers indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Manistee. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Manistee may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Manistee you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your strawflowers in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Manistee

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-10°F
Highest Expected Low	-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Manistee

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