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.

A common way of determining when it's the best time to plant osteospermum is to consult the USDA zone info for Arlington Heights.

Planting Calendar for Osteospermum

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

Osteospermum do ok in a little bit of cold which means that you can plant them a little earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant osteospermum in Arlington Heights is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant osteospermum and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your osteospermum may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your osteospermum indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Arlington Heights is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Arlington Heights there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your osteospermum in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Arlington Heights

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 Arlington Heights

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Arlington Heights.