One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

It's a good idea to figure out when it's possible to plant petunias by reviewing the USDA zone info for Mount Prospect.

Planting Calendar for Petunias

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

Petunias do ok in moderate cold which means that you can start planting them slightly earlier than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant petunias 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 petunias and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your petunias may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your petunias indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is 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. Half of the time in Mount Prospect you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your petunias 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.