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.

A common way of figuring out when to plant cerastium is to check out the USDA zone info for Des Plaines.

Planting Calendar for Cerastium

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

Cerastium do well in moderate cold which means that you can start planting them earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant cerastium in Des Plaines 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 cerastium and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your cerastium may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your cerastium indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Des Plaines. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Des Plaines is an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Des Plaines last frost occurs after April 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your cerastium if you have one of those late frosts.

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.