When to Plant Catharanthus in Jacksonville, IL

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.

The first chance to plant catharanthus in Jacksonville can be figured out by referring to the USDA zone info.


Planting Calendar for Catharanthus

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

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

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

The earliest that you can plant catharanthus in Jacksonville 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 catharanthus and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your catharanthus may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your catharanthus indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Jacksonville. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Jacksonville is not always accurate the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Jacksonville you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so always be ready to protect your catharanthus in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Jacksonville

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-10°F
Highest Expected Low-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Jacksonville

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