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.

The USDA zone info for Blue Island can be looked at to figure out when it's the best time to plant cleome.

Planting Calendar for Cleome

Frost tolerance for cleome:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

Cleome are not cold tolerant which means that it is necessary to wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant cleome in Blue Island 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 cleome and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your cleome may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your cleome indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Blue Island the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You should expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Blue Island is not always accurate the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Blue Island there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to cover your cleome if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Blue Island

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 Blue Island

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Blue Island.