One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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.

In Carpentersville you can figure out when it's possible to plant cosmos by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Cosmos

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

Since cosmos are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Carpentersville. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Remember that USDA zone info for Carpentersville is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Carpentersville it frosts late in the year after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your cosmos 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.