When to Plant Begonias in Peoria Heights, 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 using the USDA zone info for Peoria Heights you should be able to estimate when it's possible to plant begonias.


Planting Calendar for Begonias

Frost tolerance for begonias: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After the last frost.

You can not plant begonias until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they are not cold tolerant.

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

The earliest that you can plant begonias in Peoria Heights 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 begonias and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your begonias may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your begonias indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Peoria Heights. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Peoria Heights is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Peoria Heights it frosts late in the year after April 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your begonias in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Peoria Heights

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 Peoria Heights

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Peoria Heights.