When to Plant Penstemon in La Grange, IL

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.

A way of determining when it's possible to plant penstemon is to look at the USDA zone info for La Grange.

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Planting Calendar for Penstemon

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

Since penstemon do well in moderate cold you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

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

The earliest that you can plant penstemon in La Grange 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 penstemon and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your penstemon may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your penstemon indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In La Grange the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for La Grange may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in La Grange last frost occurs after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your penstemon in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for La Grange

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 La Grange

You may be interested in your other planting guides for La Grange.