When to Plant Coleus in Wilmington, IL

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

In Wilmington you can determine when it's the best time to plant coleus by looking at the USDA zone info.

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Planting Calendar for Coleus

Frost tolerance for coleus: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

Coleus are not cold tolerant which means that it's important to wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

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

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

Last Frost Date

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

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Wilmington is an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Wilmington it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your coleus if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Wilmington

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 Wilmington

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