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

One way of determining when to plant calliopsis is to examine the USDA zone info for Crystal Lake.

Planting Calendar for Calliopsis

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

Since calliopsis do not do well in cold weather you have to wait until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant calliopsis in Crystal Lake 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 calliopsis and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your calliopsis may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your calliopsis indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Crystal Lake 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 Crystal Lake may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Crystal Lake last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your calliopsis if you have one of those late frosts.

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.