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.

You can determine when it's a good idea to plant bachelor buttons in Portage by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Bachelor Buttons

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

Bachelor Buttons are moderately cold tolerant which tells us that you can start planting them earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant bachelor buttons in Portage 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 bachelor buttons and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your bachelor buttons may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your bachelor buttons indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Portage. You should expect an average low temperature of -20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Portage is just an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Portage there is a last frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your bachelor buttons in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Portage

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 Portage

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