One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

By checking out the USDA zone info for Rockford you should be able to determine when it's possible to plant flowering tobacco.

Planting Calendar for Flowering Tobacco

Frost tolerance for flowering tobacco:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

It's a bad idea to plant flowering tobacco until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant flowering tobacco in Rockford 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 flowering tobacco and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your flowering tobacco may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your flowering tobacco indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Rockford. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Rockford is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Rockford you get a frost after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your flowering tobacco if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Rockford

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 Rockford

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