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.

The first opportunity to plant portulaca in Bemidji should be determined by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Portulaca

Frost tolerance for portulaca:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

Portulaca are not cold tolerant which means that you need to wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant portulaca in Bemidji 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 portulaca and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your portulaca may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your portulaca indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is May 15 in Bemidji. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -35°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Bemidji is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Bemidji it frosts late in the year after May 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your portulaca if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Bemidji

Here is the info for USDA Zone 3b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-35°F
Highest Expected Low	-30°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -35°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -30°F.

Plants to Grow in Bemidji

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