Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to determine your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

In Lake in the Hills you can determine when it's a good idea to plant gayfeather by reviewing the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Gayfeather

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

Gayfeather do ok in pretty solid cold which means that you can plant them much earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant gayfeather in Lake in the Hills 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 gayfeather and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your gayfeather may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your gayfeather indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Lake in the Hills. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Remember that USDA zone info for Lake in the Hills is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Lake in the Hills it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your gayfeather if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Lake in the Hills

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 Lake in the Hills

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Lake in the Hills.