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.

A common way of determining when to plant portulaca is to use the USDA zone info for Waukegan.

Planting Calendar for Portulaca

Frost tolerance for portulaca:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

It's probably a bad idea to plant portulaca until after all chance of frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant portulaca in Waukegan 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 portulaca and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your portulaca may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your portulaca indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Waukegan. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Waukegan is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Waukegan you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your portulaca in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Waukegan

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 Waukegan

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