One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

In Viroqua you can determine when it's a good idea to plant cosmos by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Cosmos

Frost tolerance for cosmos:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

You can plant cosmos just a tiny bit earlier in the year because they do ok in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant cosmos in Viroqua 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 cosmos and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your cosmos may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your cosmos indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on May 15 in Viroqua. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -25°F.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Viroqua and it changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Viroqua there is a last frost after May 15 be ready to protect your cosmos in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Viroqua

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-25°F
Highest Expected Low	-20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -20°F.

Plants to Grow in Viroqua

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