When to Plant Dianthus in Blue Island, IL

One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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.

A common way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant dianthus is to look at the USDA zone info for Blue Island.

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Planting Calendar for Dianthus

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

Dianthus are moderately cold tolerant which tells us that you can start planting them earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant dianthus
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant dianthus
Probably not a good time to plant dianthus

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Blue Island. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -10°F.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Blue Island is an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Blue Island you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your dianthus in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Blue Island

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-10°F
Highest Expected Low-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Blue Island

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Blue Island.