The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of figuring out when to plant pincushion flower is to look at the USDA zone info for Rapid City.

Planting Calendar for Pincushion Flower

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

Pincushion Flower tend to make it in mild cold which means that you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant pincushion flower in Rapid City 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 pincushion flower and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your pincushion flower may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your pincushion flower indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Rapid City. You can expect an average low temperature of -20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Rapid City is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Rapid City there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to cover your pincushion flower in the event of a late frost.

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.