When to Plant Sunflowers in Oak Lawn, IL

The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of figuring out when it's possible to plant sunflowers is to use the USDA zone info for Oak Lawn.


Planting Calendar for Sunflowers

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

Since sunflowers require warm weather it's necessary to wait until after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant sunflowers
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant sunflowers
Probably not a good time to plant sunflowers

The earliest that you can plant sunflowers in Oak Lawn 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 sunflowers and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your sunflowers may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your sunflowers indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Oak Lawn the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You can expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Oak Lawn is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Oak Lawn there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to cover your sunflowers if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Oak Lawn

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 Oak Lawn

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