When to Plant Dracaena in Salem, IL

One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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 using the USDA zone info for Salem it's a good idea to estimate when to plant dracaena.


Planting Calendar for Dracaena

Frost tolerance for dracaena: Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant: Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Dracaena do ok in cold weather which tells us that you can plant them a lot earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

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

The earliest that you can plant dracaena in Salem is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant dracaena and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your dracaena may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your dracaena indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Salem. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -10°F.

Remember that USDA zone info for Salem is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Salem you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your dracaena in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Salem

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 Salem

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