One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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 figure out when you can plant gladiolus in Zone 3a by reviewing the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Gladiolus

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

Since gladiolus are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant gladiolus in Zone 3a 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 gladiolus and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your gladiolus may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your gladiolus indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on May 15 in Zone 3a. It might get as low as -40°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Zone 3a may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Zone 3a last frost occurs after May 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your gladiolus if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Zone 3a

Here is the info for USDA Zone 3a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-40°F
Highest Expected Low	-35°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -40°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -35°F.

Plants to Grow in Zone 3a

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Zone 3a.