One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate 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 common way of determining when to plant celery is to look at the USDA zone info for Elmhurst.

Planting Calendar for Celery

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

Celery do ok in mild cold which means that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant celery in Elmhurst 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 celery and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your celery may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your celery indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Elmhurst. 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 Elmhurst is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Elmhurst there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your celery in the event of a surprise late frost.

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.