When to Plant Catharanthus in Elmwood Park, IL

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

A common way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant catharanthus is to check out the USDA zone info for Elmwood Park.


Planting Calendar for Catharanthus

Frost tolerance for catharanthus: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After the last frost.

It's a bad idea to plant catharanthus until after the last frost because they require warm weather.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant catharanthus
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant catharanthus
Probably not a good time to plant catharanthus

The earliest that you can plant catharanthus in Elmwood Park 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 catharanthus and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your catharanthus may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your catharanthus indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Elmwood Park may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Elmwood Park it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your catharanthus if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Elmwood Park

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 Elmwood Park

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Elmwood Park.