When to Plant Lavender 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.

A way of figuring out when it's possible to plant lavender is to use the USDA zone info for Evanston.


Planting Calendar for Lavender

Frost tolerance for lavender: Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant: Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Since lavender are moderately cold tolerant you can plant them a little earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

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

The earliest that you can plant lavender in Evanston is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant lavender and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your lavender may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your lavender indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Evanston the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Evanston may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Evanston you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your lavender in the event of a 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.