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.

One way of determining when it's possible to plant hosta is to refer to the USDA zone info for Dekalb.

Planting Calendar for Hosta

Frost tolerance for hosta:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

You can plant hosta a little bit earlier in the year because they are moderately cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant hosta in Dekalb 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 hosta and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your hosta may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your hosta indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Dekalb may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Dekalb last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your hosta if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Dekalb

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 Dekalb

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