One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

In Fox Lake you can figure out when to plant cleome by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Cleome

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

It's probably a bad idea to plant cleome until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant cleome in Fox Lake 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 cleome and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your cleome may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your cleome indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Fox Lake. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

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

USDA Zone Info for Fox Lake

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 Fox Lake

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Fox Lake.