When to Plant Celery in Lombard, IL

One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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.

A common way of getting a good idea when you can plant celery is to look at the USDA zone info for Lombard.


Planting Calendar for Celery

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

Celery are barely cold tolerant which means that you can plant them slightly earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

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

The earliest that you can plant celery in Lombard 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 celery and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your celery may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your celery indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Lombard may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Lombard you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your celery in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Lombard

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 Lombard

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