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 sedum by reviewing the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Sedum

Frost tolerance for sedum:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Sedum are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather which means that you can get them planted much earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant sedum 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 sedum and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your sedum may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your sedum indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for Rapid City and it is different every year. Half of the time in Rapid City you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your sedum in the event of a surprise 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.