Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. 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 Normal should be looked at to determine when it's possible to plant chinese chives.

Planting Calendar for Chinese chives

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

Since chinese chives do well in moderate cold you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant chinese chives 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 chinese chives and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your chinese chives may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your chinese chives indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Normal. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Normal may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Normal you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your chinese chives 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.