One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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 using the USDA zone info for Urbana you will be able to figure out when it's the best time to plant diascia.

Planting Calendar for Diascia

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

Diascia do well in moderate cold which tells us that you can plant them a little bit earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant diascia in Urbana 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 diascia and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your diascia may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your diascia indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Urbana. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Urbana may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Urbana there is a last frost after April 15 so always be ready to protect your diascia if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Urbana

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 Urbana

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