When to Plant Bower Vine in Crete, IL

One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

The USDA zone info for Crete can be reviewed to determine when you can plant bower vine.


Planting Calendar for Bower Vine

Frost tolerance for bower vine: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After the last frost has passed.

It's probably a bad idea to plant bower vine until after all chance of frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

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

The earliest that you can plant bower vine in Crete 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 bower vine and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your bower vine may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your bower vine indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Crete and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Crete last frost occurs after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your bower vine in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Crete

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 Crete

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