One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

It's a good idea to estimate when it's a good idea to plant scabiosa by referring to the USDA zone info for Traverse City.

Planting Calendar for Scabiosa

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

Scabiosa are moderately cold tolerant which means that you can start planting them earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant scabiosa in Traverse City 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 scabiosa and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your scabiosa may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your scabiosa indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Traverse City. You should expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Traverse City is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Traverse City there is a last frost after April 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your scabiosa in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Traverse City

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 Traverse City

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Traverse City.