The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of determining when it's a good idea to plant dianthus is to look at the USDA zone info for Lake Forest.

Planting Calendar for Dianthus

Frost tolerance for dianthus:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Since dianthus are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant dianthus in Lake Forest is January. However, you really should wait until February if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant dianthus and expect a good harvest is probably October. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your dianthus may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your dianthus indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on January 31 in Lake Forest. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 30°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Lake Forest is not always accurate the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Lake Forest last frost occurs after January 31 be ready to protect your dianthus if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Lake Forest

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	30°F
Highest Expected Low	35°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 30°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 35°F.

Plants to Grow in Lake Forest

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Lake Forest.