One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

A common way of making a decision about when it's the best time to plant cosmos is to consult the USDA zone info for Anaconda.

Planting Calendar for Cosmos

Frost tolerance for cosmos:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

You can plant cosmos just a tiny bit earlier in the year because they are barely cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant cosmos in Anaconda 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 cosmos and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your cosmos may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your cosmos indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Anaconda. You can expect an average low temperature of -20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Anaconda may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Anaconda you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your cosmos if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Anaconda

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Anaconda

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