When to Plant Portulaca in Harvard, IL

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.

By looking at the USDA zone info for Harvard it's a good idea to figure out when it's a good idea to plant portulaca.


Planting Calendar for Portulaca

Frost tolerance for portulaca: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After all chance of frost has passed.

Since portulaca require warm weather it's important to wait until after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

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

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Harvard. You can 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. Half of the time in Harvard you get a frost after April 15 so always be ready to protect your portulaca 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.