Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to determine your garden 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 determining when to plant festuca is to refer to the USDA zone info for Elburn.

Planting Calendar for Festuca

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

Since festuca are moderately cold tolerant you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant festuca in Elburn 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 festuca and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your festuca may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your festuca indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Elburn. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Elburn may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Elburn you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your festuca in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Elburn

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 Elburn

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