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 way of making a decision about when it's the best time to plant crossandra is to refer to the USDA zone info for Island Lake.

Planting Calendar for Crossandra

Frost tolerance for crossandra:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

It's a bad idea to plant crossandra until after the last frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

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

Last Frost Date

In Island Lake the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Island Lake is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Island Lake there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your crossandra if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Island Lake

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 Island Lake

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Island Lake.