When to Plant Canna in Riverside, IL

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 Riverside can be used to figure out when it's the best time to plant canna.


Planting Calendar for Canna

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

Canna are not cold tolerant which means that you have to wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant canna
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant canna
Probably not a good time to plant canna

The earliest that you can plant canna in Riverside 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 canna and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your canna may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your canna indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Riverside. You should expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Riverside is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Riverside it frosts late in the year after April 15 so always be ready to cover your canna if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Riverside

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-10°F
Highest Expected Low-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Riverside

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