One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your 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 getting a good idea when to plant tritoma is to look at the USDA zone info for Island Lake.

Planting Calendar for Tritoma

Frost tolerance for tritoma:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

You can plant tritoma quite a bit earlier in the year because they do well in cold.

The earliest that you can plant tritoma in Island Lake 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 tritoma and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your tritoma may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your tritoma indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Island Lake. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Island Lake is not always accurate the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Island Lake last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your tritoma if you have a surprise late frost.

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.