When to Plant Trailing Portulaca in Fairview Heights, IL

One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

It's a good idea to figure out when it's a good idea to plant trailing portulaca by referring to the USDA zone info for Fairview Heights.


Planting Calendar for Trailing Portulaca

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

Trailing Portulaca are not cold tolerant which means that you need to wait until it warms up after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

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

The earliest that you can plant trailing portulaca in Fairview Heights 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 trailing portulaca and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your trailing portulaca may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your trailing portulaca indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Fairview Heights the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -5°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Fairview Heights is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Fairview Heights it frosts late in the year after April 15 so always be ready to protect your trailing portulaca in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Fairview Heights

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-5°F
Highest Expected Low0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Fairview Heights

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Fairview Heights.