One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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.

A way of making a decision about when it's the best time to plant centaurea is to use the USDA zone info for Island Park.

Planting Calendar for Centaurea

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

Since centaurea do well in moderate cold you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant centaurea in Island Park is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant centaurea and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your centaurea may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your centaurea indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Island Park the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 5°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Island Park is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Island Park you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your centaurea if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Island Park

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	5°F
Highest Expected Low	10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 10°F.

Plants to Grow in Island Park

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Island Park.