When to Plant Copperleaf in Ottawa, IL

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of figuring out when to plant copperleaf is to check out the USDA zone info for Ottawa.


Planting Calendar for Copperleaf

Frost tolerance for copperleaf: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

Copperleaf are not cold tolerant which means that it is important to wait until it warms up after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

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

The earliest that you can plant copperleaf in Ottawa 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 copperleaf and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your copperleaf may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your copperleaf indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Ottawa and it is different every year. Half of the time in Ottawa it frosts late in the year after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your copperleaf if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Ottawa

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 Ottawa

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