When to Plant Cuphea in Evanston, IL

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 Evanston you can figure out when it's the best time to plant cuphea by reviewing the USDA zone info.


Planting Calendar for Cuphea

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

It's probably a bad idea to plant cuphea until after all chance of frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

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

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Evanston. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Evanston may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Evanston you get a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your cuphea if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Evanston

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 Evanston

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