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

In Rapid City you can determine when it's a good idea to plant monkey flower by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Monkey Flower

Frost tolerance for monkey flower:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

You should not plant monkey flower until after the last frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant monkey flower in Rapid City is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant monkey flower and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your monkey flower may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your monkey flower indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Rapid City and it is different every year. Since half of the time in Rapid City you get a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your monkey flower in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Rapid City

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 Rapid City

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Rapid City.