When to Plant Elephant Ears in Eldorado, IL

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.

You will be able to determine when to plant elephant ears by using the USDA zone info for Eldorado.


Planting Calendar for Elephant Ears

Frost tolerance for elephant ears: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

It's probably a bad idea to plant elephant ears until after the last frost has passed because they require warm weather.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant elephant ears
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant elephant ears
Probably not a good time to plant elephant ears

The earliest that you can plant elephant ears in Eldorado is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant elephant ears and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your elephant ears may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your elephant ears indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Eldorado. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -5°F.

Remember that USDA zone info for Eldorado is an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Eldorado there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to cover your elephant ears in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Eldorado

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-5°F
Highest Expected Low0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Eldorado

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