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.

The first chance to plant strawflowers in Champaign can be determined by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Strawflowers

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

Strawflowers tend to make it in some cold which means that you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant strawflowers in Champaign is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant strawflowers and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your strawflowers may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your strawflowers indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Champaign is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Champaign you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your strawflowers in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Champaign

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

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

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Champaign

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