One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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 it's the best time to plant scaevola is to look at the USDA zone info for Joliet.

Planting Calendar for Scaevola

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

Scaevola do not do well in cold weather which tells us that it is necessary to wait until it warms up after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant scaevola in Joliet 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 scaevola and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your scaevola may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your scaevola indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Joliet the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Joliet is just an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Joliet there is a last frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your scaevola if you have a late frost.

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.