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

In Elgin you can figure out when it's a good idea to plant purple bell vines by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Purple Bell Vines

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

You can plant purple bell vines slightly earlier in the year because they are barely cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant purple bell vines 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 purple bell vines and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your purple bell vines may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your purple bell vines indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Elgin. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Elgin may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Elgin it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your purple bell vines if you have a 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.