One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

A way of estimating when it's a good idea to plant calendula is to look at the USDA zone info for Park Forest.

Planting Calendar for Calendula

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

Calendula are moderately cold tolerant which means that you can plant them a little bit earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant calendula in Park Forest 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 calendula and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your calendula may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your calendula indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Park Forest is not always accurate the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Park Forest it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your calendula in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Park Forest

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 Park Forest

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