One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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.

A common way of getting a good idea when you can plant pentas is to examine the USDA zone info for Mount Prospect.

Planting Calendar for Pentas

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

Since pentas are not cold tolerant you need to wait until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant pentas in Mount Prospect 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 pentas and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your pentas may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your pentas indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Mount Prospect may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Mount Prospect it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your pentas if you have one of those late frosts.

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.