When to Plant Sunflowers in Eldorado, IL

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

It's possible to figure out when it's a good idea to plant sunflowers by checking out the USDA zone info for Eldorado.


Planting Calendar for Sunflowers

Frost tolerance for sunflowers: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After all chance of frost has passed.

Since sunflowers require warm weather you need to wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

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

The earliest that you can plant sunflowers 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 sunflowers and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your sunflowers may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your sunflowers indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Eldorado. In the coldest months of winter you can 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. Half of the time in Eldorado last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your sunflowers in the event of a surprise 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.