When to Plant Centaurea in Carpentersville, IL

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.

It's a good idea to figure out when it's the best time to plant centaurea by referring to the USDA zone info for Carpentersville.


Planting Calendar for Centaurea

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

Since centaurea do well in moderate cold you can plant them a little earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant centaurea
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant centaurea
Probably not a good time to plant centaurea

The earliest that you can plant centaurea in Carpentersville 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 centaurea and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your centaurea may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your centaurea indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Carpentersville the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Carpentersville is an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Carpentersville you get a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your centaurea if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Carpentersville

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 Carpentersville

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