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.

A common way of figuring out when it's possible to plant lavender cotton is to use the USDA zone info for Des Plaines.

Planting Calendar for Lavender Cotton

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

You can plant lavender cotton much earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant lavender cotton 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 lavender cotton and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your lavender cotton may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your lavender cotton indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Des Plaines is just an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Des Plaines it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your lavender cotton in the event of 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.