Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to determine your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of determining when it's a good idea to plant lantana is to use the USDA zone info for Rantoul.

Planting Calendar for Lantana

Frost tolerance for lantana:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

Lantana require warm weather which tells us that you need to wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant lantana 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 lantana and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your lantana may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your lantana indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Rantoul the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Rantoul is not always accurate the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Rantoul it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your lantana 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.