When to Plant Sunflowers in Paris, IL

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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.

The first opportunity to plant sunflowers in Paris should be figured out by referring to the USDA zone info.


Planting Calendar for Sunflowers

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

It's a bad idea to plant sunflowers until after the last frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

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

The earliest that you can plant sunflowers in Paris 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 sunflowers and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your sunflowers may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your sunflowers indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Paris the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -10°F.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Paris is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Paris last frost occurs after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your sunflowers in the event of a 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.