The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

By checking out the USDA zone info for Des Plaines it's a good idea to estimate when it's a good idea to plant calibrachoa.

Planting Calendar for Calibrachoa

Frost tolerance for calibrachoa:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Calibrachoa do well in a tiny bit of cold which tells us that you can plant them just a tiny bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant calibrachoa in Des Plaines is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant calibrachoa and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your calibrachoa may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your calibrachoa indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Des Plaines. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Des Plaines is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Des Plaines it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your calibrachoa if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Des Plaines

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 Des Plaines

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Des Plaines.