When to Plant Gayfeather in Paris, IL

One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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.

By checking out the USDA zone info for Paris it's a good idea to determine when it's a good idea to plant gayfeather.


Planting Calendar for Gayfeather

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

You can plant gayfeather quite a bit earlier in the year because they are very cold tolerant.

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

The earliest that you can plant gayfeather in Paris 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 gayfeather and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your gayfeather may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your gayfeather indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Paris. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Paris may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Paris you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your gayfeather in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Paris

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 Paris

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