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.

The USDA zone info for Kankakee can be read to figure out when it's the best time to plant gomphrena.

Planting Calendar for Gomphrena

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

Since gomphrena do ok in moderate cold you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant gomphrena in Kankakee 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 gomphrena and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your gomphrena may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your gomphrena indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Kankakee. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Kankakee is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Kankakee you get a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your gomphrena in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Kankakee

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 Kankakee

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