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.

In Mount Prospect you can determine when it's possible to plant gladiolus by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Gladiolus

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

Gladiolus do ok in some cold which tells us that you can plant them just a tiny bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant gladiolus in Mount Prospect 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 gladiolus and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your gladiolus may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your gladiolus indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Mount Prospect. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Mount Prospect is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Mount Prospect last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your gladiolus if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Mount Prospect

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 Mount Prospect

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Mount Prospect.