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.

One way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant torch lilys is to examine the USDA zone info for Pekin.

Planting Calendar for Torch Lilys

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

Torch Lilys do ok in cold weather which tells us that you can plant them a lot earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant torch lilys 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 torch lilys and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your torch lilys may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your torch lilys indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Pekin. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Pekin may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Pekin last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your torch lilys in the event of a surprise 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.