One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out 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 way of determining when to plant begonias is to look at the USDA zone info for Highland Park.

Planting Calendar for Begonias

Frost tolerance for begonias:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

It's probably a bad idea to plant begonias until after all chance of frost has passed because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant begonias in Highland Park 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 begonias and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your begonias may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your begonias indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Highland Park and it is different every year. Since half of the time in Highland Park there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to cover your begonias if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Highland Park

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 Highland Park

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Highland Park.