One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Crystal Lake can be used to estimate when you can plant anchusa.

Planting Calendar for Anchusa

Frost tolerance for anchusa:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Anchusa do ok in quite a bit of cold which means that you can plant them earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant anchusa in Crystal Lake 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 anchusa and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your anchusa may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your anchusa indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Crystal Lake. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Crystal Lake is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Crystal Lake it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your anchusa if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Crystal Lake

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 Crystal Lake

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Crystal Lake.