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.

One way of making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant dusty miller is to examine the USDA zone info for Pekin.

Planting Calendar for Dusty Miller

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

Dusty Miller are very cold tolerant which means that you can start planting them much earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

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

Last Frost Date

In Pekin the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Pekin is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Pekin last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your dusty miller if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Pekin

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 Pekin

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