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

A common way of estimating when it's the best time to plant caladium is to refer to the USDA zone info for New Lenox.

Planting Calendar for Caladium

Frost tolerance for caladium:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

You can not plant caladium until after all chance of frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in New Lenox. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for New Lenox may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in New Lenox you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your caladium in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for New Lenox

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 New Lenox

You may be interested in your other planting guides for New Lenox.