When to Plant Flowering Tobacco in Ottawa, 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.

You can determine when it's a good idea to plant flowering tobacco in Ottawa by checking out the USDA zone info.

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Planting Calendar for Flowering Tobacco

Frost tolerance for flowering tobacco: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After the last frost has passed.

Since flowering tobacco are not cold tolerant it's important to wait until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

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

The earliest that you can plant flowering tobacco in Ottawa 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 flowering tobacco and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your flowering tobacco may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your flowering tobacco indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Remember that USDA zone info for Ottawa is an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Ottawa there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your flowering tobacco if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Ottawa

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 Ottawa

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