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.

It's a good idea to figure out when it's a good idea to plant centaurea by looking at the USDA zone info for Minneapolis.

Planting Calendar for Centaurea

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

Centaurea do well in moderate cold which tells us that you can get them planted earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

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

Last Frost Date

In Minneapolis the average date of last frost happens on May 15. You should expect an average low temperature of -25°F in the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Minneapolis and it is different every year. Half of the time in Minneapolis there is a last frost after May 15 so always be ready to cover your centaurea if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Minneapolis

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 Minneapolis

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