When to Plant Periwinkles in Harvard, IL

Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to determine your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

You can determine when you can plant periwinkles in Harvard by using the USDA zone info.


Planting Calendar for Periwinkles

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

It's probably a bad idea to plant periwinkles until after all chance of frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

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

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

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Harvard. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Harvard is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Harvard it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your periwinkles in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Harvard

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 Harvard

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