One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

In Joliet you can figure out when it's the best time to plant flower-of-an-hour by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Flower-of-an-Hour

Frost tolerance for flower-of-an-hour:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Flower-of-an-Hour can survive in mild cold which means that you can plant them just a tiny bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant flower-of-an-hour in Joliet is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant flower-of-an-hour and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your flower-of-an-hour may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your flower-of-an-hour indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Joliet. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for Joliet and it is different every year. Since half of the time in Joliet you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your flower-of-an-hour in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Joliet

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 Joliet

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