One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of getting a good idea when you can plant lemon grass is to use the USDA zone info for Bloomingdale.

Planting Calendar for Lemon grass

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

You can plant lemon grass slightly earlier in the year because they are barely cold tolerant.

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

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Bloomingdale. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Bloomingdale 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 Bloomingdale there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your lemon grass in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Bloomingdale

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 Bloomingdale

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