When to Plant Scabiosa in Mendota, IL

One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of determining when it's the best time to plant scabiosa is to examine the USDA zone info for Mendota.


Planting Calendar for Scabiosa

Frost tolerance for scabiosa: Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant: Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Since scabiosa are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

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

The earliest that you can plant scabiosa in Mendota 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 scabiosa and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your scabiosa may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your scabiosa indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Mendota. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Mendota may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Mendota you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so always be ready to cover your scabiosa if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Mendota

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 Mendota

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