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 common way of figuring out when to plant black eyed susans is to look at the USDA zone info for Gurnee.

Planting Calendar for Black Eyed Susans

Frost tolerance for black eyed susans:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

It's a bad idea to plant black eyed susans until after the last frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant black eyed susans in Gurnee 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 black eyed susans and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your black eyed susans may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your black eyed susans indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Gurnee. It might get as low as -15°F during 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 Gurnee and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Gurnee you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your black eyed susans in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Gurnee

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 Gurnee

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