When to Plant Sweet Woodruff in Ottawa, IL

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.

A way of determining when it's possible to plant sweet woodruff is to check out the USDA zone info for Ottawa.


Planting Calendar for Sweet Woodruff

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

Sweet Woodruff are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather which means that you can plant them a little bit earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

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

The earliest that you can plant sweet woodruff 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 sweet woodruff and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your sweet woodruff may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your sweet woodruff indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Ottawa. 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 will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Ottawa you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your sweet woodruff in the event of a 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.