Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of figuring out when you can plant four-o-clock flower is to use the USDA zone info for Portage.

Planting Calendar for Four-o-clock flower

Frost tolerance for four-o-clock flower:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

It's probably a bad idea to plant four-o-clock flower until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant four-o-clock flower in Portage 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 four-o-clock flower and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your four-o-clock flower may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your four-o-clock flower indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Remember that USDA zone info for Portage may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Portage you get a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your four-o-clock flower in the event of one of those late frosts.

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.