One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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.

In Elmhurst you can determine when it's the best time to plant balsam by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Balsam

Frost tolerance for balsam:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

It's a bad idea to plant balsam until after the last frost because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant balsam in Elmhurst 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 balsam and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your balsam may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your balsam indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Elmhurst. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Remember that USDA zone info for Elmhurst is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Elmhurst you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your balsam in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Elmhurst

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 Elmhurst

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