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.

It's a good idea to determine when it's a good idea to plant platycodon by reviewing the USDA zone info for Elgin.

Planting Calendar for Platycodon

Frost tolerance for platycodon:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Platycodon are barely cold tolerant which tells us that you can get them planted just a bit earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant platycodon in Elgin is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant platycodon and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your platycodon may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your platycodon indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Elgin. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Elgin is an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Elgin you get a frost after April 15 so always be ready to protect your platycodon in the event of a surprise late frost.

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.