Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. 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 bidens is to look at the USDA zone info for Rantoul.

Planting Calendar for Bidens

Frost tolerance for bidens:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

Bidens are not cold tolerant which means that you need to wait until it warms up after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant bidens in Rantoul 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 bidens and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your bidens may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your bidens indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Rantoul is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Rantoul you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your bidens if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Rantoul

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 Rantoul

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