When to Plant Melampodium in Palos Park, IL

One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

It's possible to figure out when it's possible to plant melampodium by referring to the USDA zone info for Palos Park.


Planting Calendar for Melampodium

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

You can not plant melampodium until after the last frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

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

The earliest that you can plant melampodium in Palos Park 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 melampodium and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your melampodium may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your melampodium indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Palos Park the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Palos Park is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Palos Park you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your melampodium in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Palos Park

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 Palos Park

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Palos Park.