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.

The USDA zone info for Niles should be looked at to figure out when to plant phlox.

Planting Calendar for Phlox

Frost tolerance for phlox:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

You can plant phlox a little earlier in the year because they do well in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant phlox in Niles is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant phlox and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your phlox may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your phlox indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Niles. You should expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Niles is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Niles you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your phlox if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Niles

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-10°F
Highest Expected Low	-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Niles

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