One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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.

One way of figuring out when it's a good idea to plant rosemary is to look at the USDA zone info for Minneapolis.

Planting Calendar for Rosemary

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

Since rosemary are very cold tolerant you can plant them earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant rosemary 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 rosemary and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your rosemary may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your rosemary indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on May 15 in Minneapolis. It might get as low as -25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Minneapolis is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Minneapolis there is a last frost after May 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your rosemary 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.