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.

One way of determining when to plant fountain grass is to look at the USDA zone info for Alsip.

Planting Calendar for Fountain Grass

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

Fountain Grass do ok in moderate cold which means that you can plant them slightly earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant fountain grass in Alsip 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 fountain grass and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your fountain grass may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your fountain grass indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Alsip. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Alsip is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Alsip it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your fountain grass if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Alsip

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 Alsip

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