One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about your gardening schedule is find your 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.

A common way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant coral bells is to examine the USDA zone info for Gurnee.

Planting Calendar for Coral Bells

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

Coral Bells do ok in moderate cold which means that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant coral bells in Gurnee 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 coral bells and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your coral bells may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your coral bells indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Gurnee. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Gurnee is an average the actual date of last frost 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 protect your coral bells in the event of one of those late frosts.

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.