One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out 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.

By looking at the USDA zone info for Streator it's possible to determine when it's possible to plant sunflowers.

Planting Calendar for Sunflowers

Frost tolerance for sunflowers:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

You should not plant sunflowers until after the last frost because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant sunflowers in Streator 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 sunflowers and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your sunflowers may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your sunflowers indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Streator. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Streator may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Streator last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your sunflowers in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Streator

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 Streator

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