One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of determining when it's a good idea to plant iceland poppy is to examine the USDA zone info for Skokie.

Planting Calendar for Iceland Poppy

Frost tolerance for iceland poppy:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

You can plant iceland poppy just a bit earlier in the year because they are moderately cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant iceland poppy in Skokie 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 iceland poppy and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your iceland poppy may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your iceland poppy indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Skokie is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Skokie it frosts late in the year after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your iceland poppy if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Skokie

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 Skokie

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