When to Plant Bougainvillea in Monmouth, 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 zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

In Monmouth you can determine when it's the best time to plant bougainvillea by referring to the USDA zone info.


Planting Calendar for Bougainvillea

Frost tolerance for bougainvillea: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

Bougainvillea are not cold tolerant which tells us that you need to wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

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

The earliest that you can plant bougainvillea in Monmouth 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 bougainvillea and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your bougainvillea may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your bougainvillea indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Monmouth. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Monmouth may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Monmouth you get a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your bougainvillea if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Monmouth

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 Monmouth

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