When to Plant Four-o-clock flower in Pontiac, IL

The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of determining when it's the best time to plant four-o-clock flower is to refer to the USDA zone info for Pontiac.


Planting Calendar for Four-o-clock flower

Frost tolerance for four-o-clock flower: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After the last frost has passed.

Since four-o-clock flower require warm weather you must wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant four-o-clock flower
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant four-o-clock flower
Probably not a good time to plant four-o-clock flower

The earliest that you can plant four-o-clock flower in Pontiac 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 four-o-clock flower and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your four-o-clock flower may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your four-o-clock flower indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Pontiac. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Pontiac is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Pontiac last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your four-o-clock flower if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Pontiac

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 Pontiac

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