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.

In Rolling Meadows you can estimate when it's a good idea to plant delphinium by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Delphinium

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

You can plant delphinium a bit earlier in the year because they do ok in moderate cold.

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

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Rolling Meadows. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Rolling Meadows is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Rolling Meadows it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your delphinium if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Rolling Meadows

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 Rolling Meadows

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Rolling Meadows.