One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

By checking out the USDA zone info for Streator it's a good idea to estimate when it's a good idea to plant balloon flower.

Planting Calendar for Balloon Flower

Frost tolerance for balloon flower:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Balloon Flower are barely cold tolerant which tells us that you can start planting them slightly earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant balloon flower in Streator is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant balloon flower and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your balloon flower may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your balloon flower indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Streator may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Streator last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your balloon flower if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Streator

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 Streator

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