One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Streamwood can be reffered to in order to figure out when it's a good idea to plant mimulus.

Planting Calendar for Mimulus

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

It's probably a bad idea to plant mimulus until after the last frost because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant mimulus in Streamwood 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 mimulus and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your mimulus may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your mimulus indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Streamwood. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Streamwood is an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Streamwood it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your mimulus if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Streamwood

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 Streamwood

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