One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the 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 possible to determine when you can plant elephant ears by reviewing the USDA zone info for Prior Lake.

Planting Calendar for Elephant Ears

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

Elephant Ears are not cold tolerant which means that it's important to wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant elephant ears in Prior Lake 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 elephant ears and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your elephant ears may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your elephant ears indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is May 15 in Prior Lake. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -25°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Prior Lake is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Prior Lake it frosts late in the year after May 15 be ready to protect your elephant ears in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Prior Lake

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 Prior Lake

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