One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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 first opportunity to plant cerastium in Normal should be estimated by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Cerastium

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

Since cerastium do well in moderate cold you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant cerastium in Normal 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 cerastium and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your cerastium may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your cerastium indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Normal the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Normal is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Normal there is a last frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your cerastium if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Normal

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 Normal

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