When to Plant Painted Tongues in Cary, IL

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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 Cary can be used to estimate when to plant painted tongues.


Planting Calendar for Painted Tongues

Frost tolerance for painted tongues: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After the last frost.

It's probably a bad idea to plant painted tongues until after all chance of frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

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

The earliest that you can plant painted tongues in Cary 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 painted tongues and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your painted tongues may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your painted tongues indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Cary the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Cary is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Cary you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your painted tongues in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Cary

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 Cary

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