One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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 should be able to determine when it's the best time to plant bidens by using the USDA zone info for Skokie.

Planting Calendar for Bidens

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

You can not plant bidens until after all chance of frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant bidens in Skokie 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 bidens and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your bidens may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your bidens indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Skokie. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -10°F.

Remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Skokie and it will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Skokie it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your bidens in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Skokie

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 Skokie

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