Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to determine your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

You should be able to estimate when it's a good idea to plant portulaca by checking out the USDA zone info for Oak Forest.

Planting Calendar for Portulaca

Frost tolerance for portulaca:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

It's not a good idea to plant portulaca until after all chance of frost has passed because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant portulaca in Oak Forest 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 portulaca and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your portulaca may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your portulaca indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Oak Forest is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Oak Forest you get a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your portulaca if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Oak Forest

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 Oak Forest

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Oak Forest.