One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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 USDA zone info for Lake Elmo should be looked at to determine when it's a good idea to plant liatris.

Planting Calendar for Liatris

Frost tolerance for liatris:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

You can plant liatris earlier in the year because they do well in cold.

The earliest that you can plant liatris in Lake Elmo 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 liatris and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your liatris may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your liatris indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on May 15 in Lake Elmo. You should expect an average low temperature of -25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Lake Elmo is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Lake Elmo you get a frost after May 15 be ready to protect your liatris in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Lake Elmo

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 Lake Elmo

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Lake Elmo.