One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

The USDA zone info for Rantoul can be used to estimate when it's a good idea to plant chocolate daisy.

Planting Calendar for Chocolate Daisy

Frost tolerance for chocolate daisy:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Since chocolate daisy are barely cold tolerant you can plant them just a tiny bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant chocolate daisy in Rantoul is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant chocolate daisy and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your chocolate daisy may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your chocolate daisy indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Rantoul the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Rantoul is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Rantoul you get a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your chocolate daisy in the event of one of those late frosts.

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.