One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of making a decision about when you can plant digitalis is to consult the USDA zone info for Elgin.

Planting Calendar for Digitalis

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

Digitalis are moderately cold tolerant which tells us that you can get them planted earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant digitalis in Elgin 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 digitalis and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your digitalis may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your digitalis indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Elgin may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Elgin you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so always be ready to protect your digitalis if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Elgin

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 Elgin

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