When to Plant Dracaena in Lombard, IL

Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant dracaena is to examine the USDA zone info for Lombard.


Planting Calendar for Dracaena

Frost tolerance for dracaena: Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant: Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Dracaena tend to make it in pretty solid cold which tells us that you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

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

The earliest that you can plant dracaena in Lombard 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 dracaena and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your dracaena may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your dracaena indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Lombard 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 Lombard there is a last frost after April 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your dracaena in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Lombard

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 Lombard

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