When to Plant Sunflowers in Peru, IL

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

You can figure out when to plant sunflowers in Peru 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 has passed.

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

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 Peru 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 really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your sunflowers indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Peru. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Peru and it will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Peru last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your sunflowers if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Peru

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 Peru

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