One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

By reviewing the USDA zone info for Rock Falls you should be able to estimate when it's the best time to plant saxifraga.

Planting Calendar for Saxifraga

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

Since saxifraga do ok in moderate cold you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant saxifraga in Rock Falls 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 saxifraga and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your saxifraga may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your saxifraga indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Rock Falls. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Rock Falls is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Rock Falls you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so always be ready to protect your saxifraga if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Rock Falls

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 Rock Falls

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Rock Falls.