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

A common way of determining when it's a good idea to plant tithonia is to refer to the USDA zone info for Melrose Park.

Planting Calendar for Tithonia

Frost tolerance for tithonia:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

Tithonia do not do well in cold weather which means that you really should wait until it warms up after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant tithonia in Melrose Park 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 tithonia and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your tithonia may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your tithonia indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Remember that USDA zone info for Melrose Park is just an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Melrose Park you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your tithonia in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Melrose Park

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 Melrose Park

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Melrose Park.