Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of estimating when it's a good idea to plant sunflowers is to check out the USDA zone info for Grand Rapids.

Planting Calendar for Sunflowers

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

You should not plant sunflowers until after the last frost because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant sunflowers in Grand Rapids 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 sunflowers and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your sunflowers may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your sunflowers indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on May 15 in Grand Rapids. It might get as low as -35°F during the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Grand Rapids is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Grand Rapids last frost occurs after May 15 be ready to protect your sunflowers if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Grand Rapids

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 Grand Rapids

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Grand Rapids.