When to Plant Purple Bell Vines in Frankfort, IL

One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

A common way of making a decision about when to plant purple bell vines is to examine the USDA zone info for Frankfort.


Planting Calendar for Purple Bell Vines

Frost tolerance for purple bell vines: Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant: Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

You can plant purple bell vines a bit earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant purple bell vines
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant purple bell vines
Probably not a good time to plant purple bell vines

The earliest that you can plant purple bell vines in Frankfort is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant purple bell vines and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your purple bell vines may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your purple bell vines indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Frankfort. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Frankfort and it will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Frankfort last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your purple bell vines if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Frankfort

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 Frankfort

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