When to Plant Sedum in Ottawa, IL

The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of getting a good idea when it's a good idea to plant sedum is to use the USDA zone info for Ottawa.


Planting Calendar for Sedum

Frost tolerance for sedum: Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant: Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Sedum do ok in cold weather which tells us that you can plant them much earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

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

The earliest that you can plant sedum in Ottawa 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 sedum and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your sedum may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your sedum indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Ottawa. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Ottawa is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Ottawa last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your sedum in the event of a surprise late frost.

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.